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NEW FORCES IN OLD CHINA 



Ha.ndsomeIy Bound in Ctoin. $1.25 net 

WITH MAPS AND 23 ILLUSTRATIONS 



THE J^EW E-RA I/f 
THE PHILIPTIJSTES 

'By ARTHUR JUDSON BR.OWN, D.D. 

Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church 
in the U. S. A. 

Endorsed by John R.. Mott 

" I have recently read and re-read ' The New Era in the 
Philippines,' by Dr. Brown. I have found it not only instruct- 
ive but most interesting and inspiring. I regard it as the best 
boolc on a mission field which has thus far appeared. It is also 
most timely. It really ought to be read by every pastor and 
Christian layman — in fact by all our citizens who have al heart 
the real welfare of our new possessions." 

Poirvted OLiid Well Written— The Observer 

" The book is designed to give the precise information regarding 
the Philippines which the general reader, and particularly the 
Christian student, desires. ... A volume of surpassing 
interest and worth. ^ . . The style is clear, strong, with 
much pleasing humor, and evidently meant to get at the bottom of 
every problem considered. . . . The book is very satisfying. " 

TKe CKrlstian Advocate Notes Its Breadth 
and Accuracy 

" We do not hesitate to say that it is a superior book, from the 
point of view of accurate statement, comprehensive knowledge, 
ability to mass facts, manifest fairness of attitude toward the 
numerous important and vital issues before the people and the 
American government, breadth and saneness of vision as to the 
future possibilities of the people. . . . It is a compendium 
of valuable and accurate information, and an able and dispassionate 
discussion of a number of the most serious questions evolved by 
American occupation of the islands." 

TKe Outlook's Commendation 

" This is the best account of religious conditions in the Philippinej 
that we have seen. It is the result of a personal visit to the 
archipelago and a study of its institutions. . . . Essential to 
ministers and others who would acquaint themselves with the 
religious conditions in the Philippines, and of value to all students 
of the v rious aspects of the Filipino problem." 



New Forces in Old China 

An Unwelcome But 
Inevitable Awakening 



By 
ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN 

Author of 
"The New Era in the Philippines^* 




New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1904, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



J LIBRARY of CONGRESsI 
Two Copies Receivea 
NOV 10 19U4 

cuss A XXc. no: 
COPY B. 






I 



New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 63 Washington Street 
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London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 30 St. Mary Street 



/ ^^ 



To my Friends in China 



Preface 

THE object of this book is to describe the operation 
upon and within old, conservative, exclusive China 
of the three great transforming forces of the modern 
world — Western trade, Western politics and Western religion. 
These forces are producing stupendous changes in that hitherto 
sluggish mass of humanity. The full significance of these 
changes both to China and to the world cannot be compre- 
hended now. There is something fascinating and at the same 
time something appalling in the spectacle of a nation number- 
ing nearly one-third of the human race slowly and majestically 
rousing itself from the torpor of ages under the influence of 
new and powerful revolutionary forces. No other movement 
of our age is so colossal, no other is more pregnant with mean- 
ing. In the words of D. C. Bougler, " The grip of the outer 
world has tightened round China. It will either strangle her 
or galvanize her into fresh life." 

The immediate occasion of this volume was the invitation of 
the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary to deliver a se- 
ries of lectures on China on the Student Lectureship Founda- 
tion and to publish them in book form. This will account in 
part for the style of some passages. I have, however, added 
considerable material which was not included in the lectures, 
while some articles that were contributed to the Century Mag- 
azine, the American Monthly Review of Reviews and other 
magazines have been inserted in their proper place in the discus- 
sion. The materials were gathered not only in study and 
correspondence but in an extended tour of Asia in the years 
1 90 1 and 1902. In that tour, advantage was taken of every 

5 



6 Preface 

opportunity to confer with Chinese of all classes, foreign con- 
suls, editors, business men and American, German and British 
officials, as well as with missionaries of all denominations. 
Everywhere I was cordially received, and, as I look at my 
voluminous note-books, I am very grateful to the men of all 
faiths and nationalities who so generously aided me in my 
search for information. 

No one system of spelling Chinese names has been followed 
for the simple reason that no one has been generally accepted. 
The Chinese characters represent words and ideas rather than 
letters and can only be phonetically reproduced in English. 
Unfortunately, scholars differ widely as to this phonetic spell- 
ing, while each nationality works in its own peculiarities wher- 
ever practicable. And so we have Manchuria, Mantchuria and 
Manchouria; Kiao-chou, Kiau-Tshou, Kiao-Chau, Kiau- 
tschou and Kiao-chow; Chinan and Tsi-nan; Ychou, Ichow 
and I-chou ; Tsing-tau and Ching-Dao; while Mukden is confus- 
ingly known as Moukden, Shen-Yang, Feng-tien-fu and Sheng- 
king. As some authors follow one system, some another and some 
none at all, and as usage varies in different parts of the Em- 
pire, an attempt at uniformity would have involved the correc- 
tion of quotations and the changing of forms that have the sanc- 
tion of established usage as, for example, the alteration of 
Chefoo to Chi-fu or Tshi-fu. I have deemed it wise, as a rule, 
to omit the aspirate {e. g., Tai-shan instead of T'ai-shan) as 
unintelligible to one who does not speak Chinese. Few for- 
eigners except missionaries can pronounce Chinese names cor- 
rectly anyway. Besides, no matter what the system of spell- 
ing, the pronunciation differs, the Chinese themselves in va- 
rious parts of the Empire pronouncing the name of the Imperial 
City Beh-ging, Bay-ging, Bai-ging and Bei-jing, while most 
foreigners pronounce it Pe-kin or Pi-king. I have followed the 
best obtainable advice in using the hyphen between the differ- 
ent parts of many proper names. For the rest I join the 
perplexed reader who devoutly hopes that the various commit- 



Preface 7 

tees that are at work on the Romanization of the Chinese lan- 
guage may in time agree among themselves and evolve a system 
that a plain, wayfaring man can understand without provoca- 
tion to wrath. 

i£b Fifth Avenue, 
New York City. 



Contents 

PART I 

OLD CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE 

I. The Ancient Empire . . . . . • ^5 

II. Do We Rightly View the Chinese ... 25 

III. Attitude Towards Foreigners — Character and 

Achievements . . . . . '35 

IV. A Typical Province . . . . . .45 

V. A Shendza in Shantung . . ... .52 

VI. At the Grave of Confucius . . . .65 

VII. Some Experiences of a Traveller — Feasts, Inns 

AND Soldiers ...... 84 

PART II 

THE COMMERCIAL FORCE AND THE ECONOMIC 
REVOLUTION 

'VIII. World Conditions that are Affecting China . loi 

i, IX. The Economic Revolution in Asia . . .111 

^'X. Foreign Trade and Foreign Vices . . .121 

y'XI. The Building of Railways . . . .130 

PART III 

THE POLITICAL FORCE AND THE NATIONAL 
PROTEST 

XII. The Aggressions of European Powers . .145 

XIII. The United States and China . . . .154 

XIV. Diplomatic Relations — Treaties . . .165 

9 



10 



Contents 



XV. Renewed Aggressions . . . . . 

^j/XVI. Growing Irritation of the Chinese — The Re- 

form Party ...... 

'XVII. The Boxer Uprising . . . . . 



»74 

184 
193 



PART IV 

THE MISSIONARY FORCE AND THE CHINESE 
CHURCH 

XVIII. Beginnings of the Missionary Enterprise — The 

Tai-ping Rebellion and the Later Develop- 
ment ...... 

XIX. Missionaries and Native Lawsuits . 

XX. Missionaries and Their Own Governments 

XXI. Responsibility of Missionaries for the Boxer 

Uprising ...... 

XXII. The Chinese Christians 

XXIII. The Strain of Readjustment to Changed Eco- 

nomic Conditions .... 

XXIV. Comity and Cooperation 



217 
228 
236 

249 
268 



280 
290 



PART V 

THE FUTURE OF CHINA AND OUR RELATION 

TO IT 

XXV. Is There a Yellow Peril . . . • 305 



XXVI. 
/ XXVII. 



Fresh Reason to Hate the Foreigner 
Hopeful Signs .... 
XXVIII. The Paramount Duty of Christendom 
Index ...... 



320 
333 
351 

371 



List of Illustrations 



Facing 

Railway Station, Paoting-fu 

View of Canton, Showing House Boats . 

H. I. H. Prince Su and Attendants 

A Rut in the Loess Region 

Germans Building Railway Bridge in Shantung 

A Shendza in Shantung 

Climbing Tai-shan, the Sacred Mountain 

The Grave of Confucius 

Part of the Author's Escort of Chinese Cavalrymen 

Watching the Author writing in his Diary at a noon stop — 
A Snap Shot ..... 

The Bund, Shanghai ..... 

American Cigarette Posters on a Chinese Bridge 

The Chinese Cart ..... 

The Old and The New .... 

French Military Post, Saigon .... 

German Soldiers on the Bund, Tien-tsin . 

The British Legation Guard, Peking 

The Temple of Heaven, Peking 

Memorial Arch, Hall of the Classics, Peking 

Graduating Class, Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Can- 
ton, 1904 ..... 

Approach to the Imperial Palace in the Forbidden City, 
Peking ..... 

Two of China's Great Men — Yuan Shih Kai and Chang 
Chih-tung ..... 

Map 



Page 
Title ' 

22 

32 

46 

56 

56 

70 

70 

92 

92 
112 
112 
130 
130 
150 
150 
174^ 
198 
228 

268 

320 / 

344 
370 ^ 



PART I 

Old China and its People 




I 

THE ANCIENT EMPIRE 

E must be dead to all noble thoughts who can tread 
the venerable continent of Asia without profound 
emotion. Beyond any other part of the earth, its 
soil teems with historic associations. Here was the birthplace 
of the human race. Here first appeared civilization. Here 
were born art and science, learning and philosophy. Here man 
first engaged in commerce and manufacture. And here 
emerged all the religious teachers who have most powerfully 
influenced mankind, for it was in Asia in an unknown antiq- 
uity that the Persian Zoroaster taught the dualism of good and 
evil ; that the Indian Gautama 600 years before Christ declared 
that self-abnegation was the path to a dreamless Nirvana ; that 
less than a century later the Chinese Lao-tse enunciated the 
mysteries of Taoism and Confucius uttered his maxims re- 
garding the five earthly relations of man, to be followed within 
another century by the bold teaching of Mencius that kings 
should rule in righteousness. In Asia it was 1,000 years after- 
wards that the Arabian Mohammed proclaimed himself as the 
authoritative prophet. There the God and Father of us all re- 
vealed Himself to Hebrew sage and prophet in the night vision 
and the angelic form and the still, small voice ; and in Asia are 
the village in which was cradled and the great altar of the 
world on which was crucified the Son of God. 

We of the West boast of our national history. But how brief 
is our day compared with the succession of world powers which 
Asia has seen. 

Chaldea began the march of kingdoms 2,200 years before 

15 



i6 New Forces in Old China 

Christ. Its proud king, Chedor-laomer, ruled from the Per- 
sian Gulf to the sources of the Euphrates, and from the Zagros 
Mountains to the Mediterranean. Then Egypt arose to rule 
not only over the northeastern part of Africa, but over half of 
Arabia and all of the preceding territory of Chaldea. Assyria 
followed, stretching from the Black Sea nearly half-way down 
the Persian Gulf and from the Mediterranean to the eastern 
boundary of modern Persia. Babylon, too, was once a world 
power whose monarch sat 

" High on a throne of royal state, which far 
Outshone the wealth of Ormus or of Ind." ' 

Persia was mightier still. Two thousand years before America 
was heard of, while France and Germany, England and Spain, 
were savage wildernesses, Persia was the abode of civilization 
and culture, of learning and eloquence. Her empire extended 
from the Indus to the Danube and from the Oxus to the Nile, 
embracing twenty satrapies each one of whose governors was 
well-nigh a king. Alexander the Great, too, at the head of 
his invincible army, swept over vast areas of Asia, capturing 
cities, unseating rulers, and bringing well-nigh all the civilized 
world under his dominion. And was not Rome also an Asi- 
atic power, for it stretched not only from the firths of Scot- 
land on the north to the deserts of Africa on the south, but 
from the Atlantic Ocean on the west to the River Euphrates on 
the east. 

Altogether it is a majestic but awful procession, overwhelm- 
ing us by its grandeur and yet no less by its horror. It is 
a kaleidoscope on a colossal scale, whose pieces appear like 
fragments of a broken universe. Empires rise and fall. 
Thrones are erected and overturned. The mightiest creations 
of man vanish. Yea, they have all waxed "old as doth a gar- 
ment," and "as a vesture" are they "changed." 

But were these ancient nations the last of Asia ? Has that 

1 Milton, " Paradise Lost," Book TI. 



The Ancient Empire 17 

mighty continent nothing more to contribute to the world than 
the memories of a mighty past ? It is impossible to believe 
that this is all. The historic review gives a momentum which 
the mind cannot easily overcome. As we look towards the Far 
East, we can plainly see that the evolution is incomplete. What- 
ever purpose the Creator had in mind has certainly not yet been 
accomplished. More than two-thirds of those innumerable 
myriads have as yet never heard of those high ideals of life and 
destiny which God Himself revealed to men. It is incredible 
that a wise God should have made such a large part of the 
world only to arrest its development at its present unfinished 
stage, inconceivable that He should have made and preserved 
so large a part of the human race for no other and higher pur- 
pose than has yet been achieved. 

Within this generation, a new Asiatic power has suddenly ap- 
peared in a part of Asia far removed from the region in which 
the wise men of old lived and studied, and the might of 
that nation is even now checking the progress of huge and 
haughty Russia. But brilliant as has been the meteoric career 
of Japan, there is another race in Asia, which, though now 
moving more sluggishly, has possibilities of development that 
may in time make it a dominant factor in the future of the 
world. Great forces are now operating on that race and it is 
the purpose of this book to give some account of those forces 
and to indicate the stupendous transformation which they are 
slowly but surely producing. 

The magnitude of China is almost overwhelming. In spite 
of all that I had read, I was amazed by what I saw. To say 
that the Empire has an area of 4,218,401 square miles is almost 
like saying that it is 255,000,000,000 miles to the North Star; 
the statement conveys no intelligible idea. The mind is only con- 
fused by such enormous figures. But it may help us to remember 
that China is one-third larger than all Europe, and that if the 
United States and Alaska could be laid upon China there 
would be room left for several Great Britains. Extending from 



l8 New Forces in Old China 

the fifty-fourth parallel of latitude southward to the eighteenth, 
the Empire has every variety of climate from arctic cold to 
tropic heat. It is a land of vast forests, of fertile soil, of rich 
minerals, of navigable rivers. The very fact that it has so long 
sustained such a vast population suggests the richness of its re- 
sources. There are said to be 600,000,000 acres of arable soil, 
and so thriftily is it cultivated that many parts of the Empire 
are almost continuous gardens and fields. Four hundred and 
nineteen thousand square miles are believed to be underlaid 
with coal. Baron von Richthoven thinks that 600,000,000,000 
tons of it are anthracite, and that the single Province of Shen-si 
could supply the entire world for a thousand years. When we 
add to this supply^of coal the apparently inexhaustible deposits 
of iron ore, we have the two products on which material great- 
ness largely depends. 

The population proves to be even greater than was supposed, 
for while 400,000,000 was formerly believed to be a maximum 
estimate, the general census recently taken by the Chinese 
Government for the purpose of assessing the war tax places the 
population of the Empire at 426,000,000. This, however, 
includes 8,500,000 in Manchuria, 2,580,000 in Mongolia, 
6,430,020 in Tibet and 1,200,000 in Chinese Turkestan. 
Some of these regions are only nominally Chinese. Those on 
the western frontier were until comparatively recent years 
almost as unknown as the poles. Sven Hedin's description of 
those that he traversed is wonderfully fascinating. Only a 
daring spirit, the explorer of the type that is born, not made, 
could have pierced those vast solitudes and wrested from them 
the secret of their existence. That Hedin had no money for 
such a costly quest could not deter this Viking of the Northland. 
Kings headed the subscription and others so eagerly followed 
that ample funds were soon in hand. Princes helped with 
equipment and counsel. The Czar made all Russian railways 
free highways, and every local official and nomad chieftain 
exerted himself to aid the expedition. Hedin does not claim 



The Ancient Empire 19 

to give anything more than an ordered diary of his travels, to- 
gether with a description of the lands he explored and the 
peoples he found. But what a diary it is ! It takes the reader 
away from the whirl of crowded cities and clanging trolley-cars 
into the boundless, wind-swept desert and the solitude of 
majestic mountains where the lonely traveller wanders with his 
camels through untrodden wildernesses or floats down the 
interminable stretches of unknown rivers, while night after 
night he sleeps in his tiny tent or under the open sky. The 
author failed to reach the long-sought Lassa, the suspicious 
Dalai Lama refusing to be deceived or cajoled and sternly send- 
ing the inquisitive traveller out of the country. But the expedi- 
tion of three years and three days was rich in other disclosures of 
ruined cities and great watercourses and lofty plateaus and 
majestic mountain ranges. The population is sparse in those 
desolate wastes, and the scattered inhabitants are wild and un- 
couth and free. 

Manchuria, however, is far from being the barren country 
that so many imagine it to be. It is, in many respects, like 
Canada, a region embracing about 370,000 square miles and of 
almost boundless agricultural and mineral wealth. The 
population, save in the southern parts, is not yet dense but it is 
rapidly increasing. 

But in central and eastern China, the conditions are very 
different. Here the population can only be indicated by a 
figure so large that it is almost impossible for us to compre- 
hend it. Consider that the eighteen provinces alone, with an 
area about equal to that part of the United States east of the 
Mississippi River, have eight times the population of that 
part of our country. 

" There are twice as many people in China as on the four continents — 
Africa, North and South America and Oceanica. Every third person 
who toils under the sun and sleeps under God's stars is a Chinese. 
Every third child born into the world looks into the face of a Chinese 
mother. Every third pair given in marriage pliglit their troth in a 



20 New Forces in Old China 

Chinese cup of wine. Every third orphan weeping through the day 
every third widow wailing through the night are in China. Put them in 
rank, joining hands, and they will girdle the globe ten times at the equa- 
tor with living, beating human hearts. Constitute them pilgrims and let 
two thousand go past every day and night under the sunlight and 
under the solemn stars, and you must hear the ceaseless tramp, tramp, of 
the weary, pressing, throbbing throng for five hundred years."' 

There is something amazing in the immensity of the popula- 
tion. Great cities are surprisingly numerous. In America, a 
city of nearly a million inhabitants is a wonderful place and all 
the world is supposed to know about it. But while Canton and 
Tien-tsin are tolerably familiar names, how many in the United 
States ever heard of Hsiang-tan-hsien ? Yet Hsiang-tan- 
hsien is said to have 1,000,000 inhabitants, while within com- 
paratively short distances are other great cities and innumer- 
able villages. In the Swatow region, within a territory a 
hundred and fifty miles long and fifty miles wide, there are no 
less than ten walled cities of from 40,000 to 250,000 inhabit- 
ants, besides hundreds of towns and villages ranging from a few 
hundred to 25,000 or 30,000 people. Men never tire of writ- 
ing about the population adjacent to New York, Boston and 
Chicago. But in five weeks' constant journeying through the 
interior of the Shantung Province, there was hardly an hour in 
which multitudes were not in sight. There are no scattered 
farmhouses as in America, but the people live in villages and 
towns, the latter strongly walled and even the former often have 
a mud wall. As the country is comparatively level, it was easy 
to count them, and as a rule there were a dozen or more in 
plain view. I recall a memorable morning. It was Friday, 
June 28, 1 90 1. We had risen early, and by daylight we had 
breakfasted, and started our carts and litters. In our enjoy- 
ment of the cool, delicious morning air, we walked for several 
li. Just before the sun rose, we crossed a low ridge and from 
its crest, I counted no less than thirty villages in front of us, 
» The Rev. J. T. Gracey, D. D,, " China in Outline," p. 10. 



The Ancient Empire 



21 



while behind there were about as many more, the average popU' 
lation being apparently about 500 each. For days at a time, 
my road lay through the narrow, crowded street of what seemed 
to be an almost continuous village, the intervening farms being 
often hardly more than a mile in width. 

Imagine half the population of the United States packed into 
the single state of Missouri and an idea of the situation will be 
obtained, for with an area almost equal to that of Missouri, 
Shantung has no less than 38,247,900 inhabitants. It is the 
most densely populated part of China. But the Province of 
Shan-si is as thickly settled as Hungary. Fukien and Hupeh 
have about as many inhabitants to the square mile as England. 
Chih-li is as populous as France and Yun-nan as Bulgaria. 

The density of China's population may be better realized by 
a glance at the following detailed comparison between the 
population of Chinese provinces and the population of similar 
areas in the United States : 



Area 



Provinces 


Square mil 


Hupeh, 


71,410 


Ohio and Indiana, 


76,670 


Honan, 


67,940 


Missouri, 


68,735 


Cheh-kiang, 


36,670 


Kentucky, 


40,000 


Kiang-si, 


69,480 


Kentucky and Tennessee, 


81,750 


Kwei-chou, 


67,160 


Virginia and West Virginia, 


64,770 


Yun-nan, 


146,680 


Michigan and Wisconsin, 


111,880 


Fukien, 


46,320 


Ohio, 


40,760 


Chih-li, 


115,800 


Georgia, 


50,980 


Shantung, 


55.970 


New England, 


62,000 


Shan-si, 


81,830 


Illinois, 


56,000 


Shen-si, 


75.270 


Nebraska, 


76,840 



Population 

35,280,685 
5,864,720 

35,316,800 
2,679,184 

11,580,692 
1,858,635 

26,532,125 
3,626,252 
7,650,282 
2,418,774 

12,324,574 
3,780,769 

22,876,540 
3.<J72,3i6 

20,937,000 

1.837.353 
38,247,900 
4,700,945 
12,200,456 
3,826,851 
8,450,182 
1,058,910 



22 New Forces in Old China 



Kan-su, 


125,450 


California, 


155.980 


Sze-chuen, 


218,480 


Ohio, Ind., 111., Ky., 


I73>430 


Ngan-hwei, 


54,810 


New York, 


47,600 


Kiang-su, 


38,600 


Pennsylvania, 


44,985 


Kwan-tung and Hainan, 


99,970 


Kansas, 


81,700 


Kwang-si, 


77,200 


Minnesota, 


79,205 


Hunan, 


83,380 


Louisiana, 


45,000 



10,385,376 

1,208,130 
68,724,890 

11.350,219 
23,670,314 

s.997.853 
13.980,235 

5,258,014 
31,865,251 

1,427,096 
5,142,330 

1,301,826 
22,169,673 

1,110,569 



Perhaps the most thoroughly typical city in China is Canton. 
The approach by way of the West River from Hongkong 
gives the traveller a view of some of the finest scenery in China, 
The green rice-fields, the villages nestling beneath the groves, 
the stately palm-trees, the quaint pagodas, the broad, smooth 
reaches of the river 'reflecting the glories of sunset and moon- 
rise, and the noble hills in the background combine to form a 
scene worth journeying far to see. 

But Canton itself is unique among the world's great cities, 
and the most sated traveller cannot fail to find much that will 
interest him. After much journeying in China, we thought we 
had seen its typical places, but no one has seen China until he 
has visited Canton. With an estimated population of 1,800,- 
000, it is the metropolis of the Empire. The number of people 
per acre may be less than in some parts of the East Side in New 
York, for the houses are only one story in height. But the 
crowding is amazing. The streets are mere alleys from four to 
eight feet wide, lined with open-front shops, so filled overhead 
with perpendicular signs and cross coverings of bamboo poles 
and mattings that they are in as perpetual shade as an African 
forest, and so choked with people that men often had to back 
into a shop to let our chairs pass. No wheeled vehicle can 
enter those corkscrew streets and we saw no animal of any kind 
save two cows that were being led to slaughter. 



The Ancient Empire 23 

And the hubbub ! Such shouting and yelling cannot be 
heard anywhere else in the world. Our chair coolies were in a 
constant state of objurgation in clearing a way. Everybody 
seemed to be bellowing to everybody else and when two chairs 
met, the din shattered the atmosphere. A foreigner excites a 
surprising amount of curiosity, considering the number that 
visit Canton. Troops of boys followed us and there was a good 
deal of what sounded like cat-calling. But it was all good- 
natured, or appeared to be. 

The unpretentious shop-fronts often beckon to mysteries that 
are well worth penetrating — tobacco factories where coolies 
stamp the leaves with bare feet ; tea, gold, dye and embroidery 
shops where designs of exquisite delicacy are exhibited ; silk- 
weaving factories where fine fabrics are made on the simplest of 
looms; feather shops where breastpins and other ornaments 
are made of tiny bits of feathers on a silver base — a work re- 
quiring almost incredible nicety of vision and such strain upon 
the eyes that the operators often become blind by forty. An- 
other curiosity is a shop where crickets are reared for fighting 
as the Filipino fights cocks and the Anglo-Saxon fights dogs. 
The Chinese gamble on the result and a good fighting cricket is 
sometimes sold for ^100. The attendant put a couple in a jar 
for our alleged amusement and they began fighting fiercely. 
But I promptly stopped the mglee as I did not enjoy such sport. 

The river is one of the sights of China. It is crowded with 
boats of all sizes. The owner of each lives on it with his 
family, the babies having ropes tied to them so that if they 
tumble into the water, they can be pulled out. 

Altogether, it is a remarkable city. Viewed from the famous 
Five-Story Pagoda, on a high part of the old city wall, it is a 
swarming hive of humanity. As one looks out on those myriads 
of toiling, struggling, sorrowing men and women, he is con- 
scious of a new sense of the pathos and the tragedy of human 
life. If I may adapt the words of the Rev. Dr. Richard S. 
Storrs on the heights above Naples, at the Church of San Mar- 



24 New Forces in Old China 

tino, on the way to St. Elmo — I suppose that every one who 
has ever stood on the balcony of that lofty pagoda "has 
noticed, as I remember to have noticed, that all the sounds 
coming up from that populous city, as they reached the upper 
air, met and mingled on the minor key. There were the voices 
of traffic, and the voices of command, the voices of affection 
and the voices of rebuke, the shouts of sailors, and the cries of 
itinerant venders in the street, with the chatter and the laugh 
of childhood ; but they all came up into this incessant moan in 
the air. That is the voice of the world in the upper air, where 
there are spirits to hear it. That is the cry of the world for 
help." ' 

1 " Address on Foreign Missions," pp. 178, 179. 



1 



II 

DO WE RIGHTLY VIEW THE CHINESE 

"^00 much has been made of the peculiarities of the 
Chinese, ignoring the fact that many customs and 
traits that appear peculiar to us are simply the differ- 
ences developed by environment. Eliza Scidmore affirms that 
" no one knows or ever really will know the Chinese, the most 
comprehensible, inscrutable, contradictory, logical, illogical 
people on earth." But a Chinese gentleman, who was edu- 
cated in the United States, justly retorts : " Behold the Ameri- 
can as he is, as I honestly found him — great, small, good, bad, 
self-glorious, egotistical, intellectual, supercilious, ignorant, 
superstitious, vain and bombastic. In truth," he adds, "so 
very remarkable, so contradictory, so incongruous have I found 
the American that I hesitate." ^ 

The Chinese are, indeed, very different from western peoples 
in some of their customs. 

" They mount a horse on the right side instead of the left. The old 
men play marbles and fly kites, while children look gravely on. They 
shake hands with themselves instead of with each other. What we call 
the surname is written first and the other name afterwards. A coffin is a 
very acceptable present to a rich parent in good health. In the north 
they sail and pull their wheelbarrows in place of merely pushing them. 
, . . China is a country where the roads have no carriages and the 
ships have no keels; where the needle points to the south, the place of 
honour is on the left hand, and the seat of intellect is supposed to lie in the 
stomach ; where it is rude to take off your hat, and to wear white clothes 
is to go into mourning. Can one be astonished to find a literature without 
an alphabet and a language without a grammar ? " ^ 

J " As a Chinaman Saw Us," pp. I, 2. 

* Temple Bar, quoted in Smith's " Rex Christus," p. 1 15. 

25 



26 New Forces in Old China 

It would never occur to us to commit suicide in order to 
spite another. But in China such suicides occur every day, 
because it is beheved that a death on the premises is a lasting 
curse to the owner. And so the Chinese drowns himself in his 
enemy's well or takes poison on his foe's door-step. Only a 
few months ago, a rich Chinese murdered an employee in a 
British colony, and knowing that inexorable British law would 
not be satisfied until some one was punished, he hired a poor 
Chinese named Sack Chum to confess to having committed the 
murder and to permit himself to be hung, the real murderer 
promising to give him a good funeral and to care for his family. 
An Englishman who thought this an incredible story wrote a 
letter of inquiry to an intelligent Chinese merchant of his 
acquaintance and received the following reply : 

" Nothing strange to Chinamen. Sack Chum, old man, no money, soon 
die. Every day in China such thing. Chinaman not like white man — 
not afraid to die. Suppose some one pay his funeral, take care his family. 
• I die,' he say. Chinaman know Sack Chum, we suppose, sell himself to 
men who kill Ah Chee. Somebody must die for them. Sack Chum say 
he do it. All right. Police got him. What for they want more ? " 

These things appear odd from our view-point and there are 
many other peculiarities that are equally strange to us. But it 
may be wholesome for us to remember that some of our customs 
impress the Chinese no less oddly. The Frankfurter Zeitung, 
Germany, prints the following from a Chinese who had seen 
much of the Europeans and Americans in Shanghai : 

" We are always told that the countries of the foreign devils are grand 
and rich ; but that cannot be true, else what do they all come here for ? 
It is here that they grow rich. They jump around and kick balls as if 
they were paid to do it. Again you will find them making long tramps 
into the country ; but that is probably a religious duty, for when they 
tramp they wave sticks in the air, nobody knows why. They have no 
sense of dignity, for they may be found walking with women. Yet the 
women are to be pitied, too. On festive occasions they are dragged 
around a room to the accompaniment of the most hellish music." 



Do We Rightly View the Chinese 27 

A Chinese resident in America wrote to his friends at home 
a letter from which the following extract is taken : 

" What is queerer still, men will stroll out in company with their wives 
in broad daylight without a blush. And will you believe that men and 
women take hold of each other's hands by way of salutation ? Oh, I have 
seen it myself more than once. After all, what can you expect of folk 
who have been brought up in barbarous countries on the very verge of 
the world ? They have not been taught the maxims of our sages ; they 
never heard of the Rites ; how can they know what good manners mean ? 
We often think them rude and insolent when I'm sure they don't mean it ; 
they're ignorant, that's all." ' 

A call that I made upon a high official in an interior city 
developed a curious interest. He was a pale, thin man, 
apparently an opium smoker and a mandarin of the old school. 
But he was intelligent enough to ask me not only about " the 
twenty-story buildings of New York," but " the differences be- 
tween the various Protestant sects," and in particular about 
"the Mormons and their strength ! " Who could have im- 
agined that the Latter Day Saints of Utah could be known to a 
Chinese nobleman of Chih-li ? Verily, our own idiosyncrasies 
are known afar. 

It will thus be seen that mutual recriminations regarding 
national peculiarities are not likely to be convincing to either 
party. Human nature is much the same the world over. From 
this view-point at least we may discreetly remember that 

" There is so much bad in the best of us, 
And so much good in the worst of us, 
That it hardly behoves any of us 
To talk about the rest of us." 

I do not mean to give an exaggerated impression of the 
virtues of the Chinese or what Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop calls 
" a milk-and-water idea " of heathenism. Undoubtedly, they 
have grave defects. Official corruption is well-nigh universal. 
A correspondent of the North- China Herald reports a well- 
' Smith, " Rex Christus," p. Il6. 



28 New Forces In Old China 

informed Chinese gentleman of the Province of Chih-li as ex- 
pressing the conviction that one-half the land tax never reaches 
the Government. " But that is not all," said he. 

" There are other sources of income for the hsien official. Thus here 
in this county, thirty-five or forty years ago, the Government imposed an 
extra tax for the purpose of putting dovv^n the Tai-ping rebellion, and the 
officials have continued to collect that tax ever since. Of course if the 
literati should move in the matter and report to Paoting-fu, the magistrate 
would be bounced at once ; but they are not likely to do so. The tax is a 
small one, my own share not being more than five dollars or so." 

China's whole public service is rotten with corruption. 
Offices with merely nominal salaries or none at all are usually 
bought by the payment of a heavy bribe and held for a term of 
three years, during which the incumbent seeks not only to re- 
coup himself but to make as large an additional sum as pos- 
sible. As the weakness of the Government and the absence of 
an outspoken public press leave them free from restraint, China 
is the very paradise of embezzlers. ** Any man who has had the 
least occasion to deal with Chinese courts knows that ' every 
man has his price,' that not only every underling can be 
bought, but that 999 out of every 1,000 officials, high or low, 
will favour the man who offers the most money." ^ Dishonesty 
is not, as with the white race, simply the recourse in emergency 
of the unscrupulous man. It is the habitual practice, the rule 
of intercourse of all classes. The Chinese apparently have no 
conscience on the subject, but appear to deem it quite praise- 
worthy to deceive you if they can. 

Gambling is openly, shamelessly indulged in by all classes. 
As for immorality, the Rev. Dr. J. Campbell Gibson of Swatow 
says that " while the Chinese are not a moral people, vice has 
never in China as in India, been made a branch of religion." 
But the Rev. Dr. C. H. Fenn, of Peking, declares " that every 
village and town and city — it would not be a very serious ex- 

' Rev. Dr. C. H. Fenn, Peking. 



Do We Rightly View the Chinese 29 

aggeration to say every home, — fairly reeks with impurity." 
The Chinese are, indeed, less openly immoral than the Japanese, 
while their venerated books abound with the praises of virtue. 
But medical missionaries could tell a dark story of the extent 
to which immorality eats into the very warp and woof of 
Chinese society. The five hundred monks in the Lama 
Temple in Peking are notorious not only for turbulence and 
robbery, but for vice. The temple is in a spacious park and 
includes many imposing buildings. The statue of Buddha is 
said to be the largest in China — a gilded figure about sixty feet 
high — colossal and rather awe-inspiring in "the dim religious 
light." But in one of the temple buildings, where the two 
monks who accompanied us said that daily prayers were 
chanted, I saw representations in brass and gilt that were as 
filthily obscene as anything that I saw in India. There is im- 
morality in lands that are called Christian, but it is disavowed 
by Christianity, ostracized by decent people and under the ban 
of the civil law. But Buddhism puts immorality in its temples 
and the Government supports it. This particular temple has 
the yellow tiled roofs that are only allowed on buildings as- 
sociated with the Imperial Court or that are under special 
Imperial protection. Mr. E. H. Parker, after twenty years' 
experience in China, writes, 

" The Chinese are undoubtedly a libidinous people, with a decided in- 
clination to be nasty about it. . . . Rich mandarins are the most profli- 
gate class. . . . Next come the wealthy merchants. . . . The 
crapulous leisured classes of Peking openly flaunt the worst of vices. 
. . . Still, amongst all classes and ranks the moral sense is decidedly 
weak. . . . Offenses which with us are regarded as almost capital — 
in any case as infamous crimes — do not count for as much as petty misde- 
meanours in China." ' 

More patent to the superficial observer is a cruelty which 
appears to be callously indifferent to suffering. This manifests 
itself not only in most barbarous punishments but in a thou- 
» " China," pp. 272, 273. 



30 New Forces in Old China 

sand incidents of daily life. The day I entered China at 
Chefoo, I saw a dying man lying beside the road. Hundreds 
of Chinese were passing and repassing on the crowded thor- 
oughfare. But none stopped to help or to pity and the sufferer 
passed through his last agony absolutely uncared for and lay 
with glazing eyes and stiffening form all unheeded by the care- 
less throng. Twenty-four hours afterwards, he was still lying 
there with his dead face upturned to the silent sky, while the 
world jostled by, buying, laughing, quarrelling, heedless of the 
tragedy of human life so near. And when in Ching-chou-fu, I 
stopped to see if I could not give some relief to a woman who 
was writhing in the street, I was hastily warned that if I 
touched her unasked, the populace might hold me responsible 
in the event of her death and perhaps demand heavy damages, 
if, indeed, it did not mob me on the spot. Undoubtedly the 
Chinese are often deterred from aiding a sufferer because they 
fear that if death occurs " bad luck " will follow them, a horde of 
real or fictitious relatives will clamour for damages, and perhaps a 
rapacious magistrate will take advantage of the opportunity to 
make a criminal charge which can be removed only by a heavy 
bribe. And so the sick and poor are often left to die uncared 
for in crowded streets, and drowning children are allowed to 
sink within a few yards of boats which might have rescued 
them. But everywhere in China, little attention is paid to 
suffering and many customs seem utterly heartless. 

In spite, too, of the agnostic teachings of Confucius and 
their own practical temperament, the Chinese are a very super- 
stitious people and live in constant terror of evil spirits. The 
grossest superstitions prevail among them, while beyond any 
other people known to us they are stagnant, spiritually dead, 
densely ignorant of those higher levels of thought and life to 
which Christianity has raised whole classes in Europe and 
America. 

Some people who are ignorant of the real situation in China 
are being misled by an anonymous little book entitled "Letters 



Do We Rightly View the Chinese 31 

from a Chinese Official." The author insists that Anglo-Saxon 
institutions are far inferior to the institutions of China. He 
declares that "our religion (Chinese) is more rational than 
yours, our morality higher and our institutions more perfect," 
and that there is less real happiness in Europe and America 
than in China. As for Christianity, he regards it as quite im- 
practicable. He holds that Confucianism is feasible and that 
Christianity is not, and much more to the same effect. There 
is some internal evidence that the author is not a Chinese at all, 
but a cynical European. At any rate, the book is an ex parte 
statement of the most glaring kind, omitting the good in 
Europe and America and the bad in China. One who has 
visited the Celestial Empire gasps when he reads that the Chi- 
nese houses are *' cheerful and clean," that the Chinese live the 
life of the mind and the spirit to a far higher degree than the 
Christian peoples of the West, and that Chinese life has a dig- 
nity and peace and beauty which Europe cannot equal. " Such 
silence! Such sounds! Such perfume! Such colour!" 
the author rhapsodizes. Bishop Graves, of Shanghai, who has 
spent a quarter of a century in China and who is therefore pre- 
sumably competent to speak, declares : 

" Far be it from me to belittle the beauty of the Chinese landscape ; 
but why did he not leave out that about the perfume ? Why, you can 
smell China out at sea ! However, it is just as easy to imagine the per- 
fume as the rest of it, while you are writing. . . . Exaggeration is 
the most conspicuous note of these ' Letters.' Any one who has not 
seen China can test whether this book is true to fact by comparing it with 
any narrative of sober travel, and if he happens to live in China, his own 
nose and eyes are a sufficient witness. . . . The writer takes the 
worst of our morals, the weakest of our religion, the most debasing of our 
industrial conditions, the most pernicious of our vices, and against them 
he sets not the best that China can show, but an exaggerated picture 
which is false to fact. This is not argument but trickery, because it pre- 
sumes on the fact that one's readers will know no better." 

Indeed, the Rev. Dr. C. H. Fenn, who has resided in 



32 New Forces in Old China 

Peking for ten years, writes that he cannot believe that the 
author of ** Letters from a Chinese Official " is a sincere man. 
He continues : 

" I would be almost willing to assert that it is impossible for a man, 
brought up in China, then spending many years abroad, to return to China 
and write such a book in honesty and sincerity of heart. He could not 
possibly help knowing that nine-tenths of what he was writing about 
China was absolutely untrue, that her political, legal, social, domestic and 
personal life are rotten to the core, and that only in a few exceptional 
cases is any pretence even made of living according to the ethics of Con- 
fucius. It might be possible for an educated man, whose surroundings 
had always been of an exceptionally good character, and who had never 
gone outside of his own province or studied foreign books, to write with 
some enthusiasm of the beauties of Chinese life, but not for any one else." 

Still, at a time when the Chinese are being so vociferously 
abused, it is only fair that we should give them credit for the 
good qualities which they do possess. I ask with Dr. William 
Elliott Griffis: "In talking of our brother men, what shall 
be our general principle, detraction or fair play? Because 
lackadaisical writers picture the Christless nations as in the 
innocence of Eden, shall we, at the antipodes of fact and 
truth, proceed to blacken their characters ? Shall we compare 
the worst in Canton, Benares or Zululand, with the best in Lon- 
don, Berlin or Philadelphia ? Surely God cannot look with 
complacency or hear with delight much of the practical slander 
spoken among white folks and Anglo-Saxons of His children 
and our brothers." 

There has been too much of a disposition to think of the 
Chinese as a mass, almost as we would regard immense herds 
of cattle or shoals of fish. Why not rather think of the 
Chinese as an individual, as a man of like passions with our- 
selves ? Physically, mentally, and morally he differs from us 
only in degree, not in kind. He has essentially the same hopes 
and fears, the same joys and sorrows, the same susceptibility to 
pain and the same capacity for happiness. Are we not told 



Do We Rightly View the Chinese 33 

that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men"? 
We complacently imagine that we are superior to the Chinese. 
But discussing the question as to what constitutes superiority 
and inferiority of race, Benjamin Kidd declares that "we shall 
have to set aside many of our old ideas on the subject. Neither 
in respect alone of colour, nor of descent, nor even of the pos- 
session of high intellectual capacity, can science give us any 
warrant for speaking of one race as superior to another." Real 
superiority is the result, not so much of anything inherent in 
one race as distinguished from another, as of the operation 
upon a race and within it of certain uplifting forces. Any 
superiority that we now possess is due to the action upon us of 
these forces. But they can be brought to bear upon the 
Chinese as well as upon us. We should avoid the popular 
mistake of looking at the Chinese "as if they were merely 
animals with a toilet, and never see the great soul in a man's 
face. " * " There is nothing, ' ' says Stopford Brooke, ' * that needs 
so much patience as just judgment of a man. We ought to 
know his education, the circumstances of his life, the friends 
he has made or lost, his temperament, his daily work, the mo- 
tives which filled the act, the health he had at the time — we 
ought to have the knowledge of God to judge him justly." 

We need in this study a truer idea of the worth and dignity 
of man as man, a realization that back of almond eyes and un- 
der a yellow skin are all the faculties and the possibilities of a 
human soul, to grasp the great thought that the Chinese is not 
only a man, but our brother man, made like ourselves in the 
image of God. Let us have the charity which sees beneath all 
external peculiarities our common humanity, which leads us to 
respect a man because he is a man ; which, no matter what 
complexion he may have, no matter where he lives, no matter 
to what degradation he has fallen, will take him by the hand 
and endeavour to elevate him to a higher plane of life. For 
him we need an enthusiasm for humanity which shall not be a 
^ George Eliot. 



34 New Forces in Old China 

sentimental rhetoric, but a catholic, throbbing love, remember- 
ing that he is 

" Heir of the same inheritance, 
Child of the self-same God, 
He hath but stumbled in the path 
We have in weakness trod," 

Ruskin reminds us that the filthy mud from the street of a 
manufacturing town is composed of clay, sand, soot and water ; 
that the clay may be purified into the radiance of the sapphire ; 
that the sand may be developed into the beauty of the opal ; that 
the soot may be crystallized into the glory of the diamond and 
that the water may be changed into a star of snow. So man in 
Asia as well as in America may, by the transforming power of 
God's Spirit, be ennobled into the kingly dignity of divine son- 
ship. We shall get along best with the Chinese if we remem- 
ber that he is a human being like ourselves, responsive to kind- 
ness, appreciative of justice and capable of moral transforma- 
tion under the influence of the Gospel. He differs from us not 
in the fundamental things that make for manhood, but only in 
the superficial things that are the result of environment. From 
this view-point, we can say with Shakespeare : — 

" There is some sort of goodness in things evil, 
Would men observingly distil it out." 

Those who are wont to refer so contemptuously to the Chi- 
nese might profitably recall that when, in Dickens' " Christmas 
Carol," the misanthropic Scrooge says of the poor and suffer- 
ing : " If he be like to die, he had better do it and decrease 
the surplus population," — the ghost sternly replies : — 

" Man, if man you be at heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant 
until you have discovered what the surplus is and where it is. Will you 
decide what men shall live, what men shall die ? It may be that in the 
sight of heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions 
like this poor man's child. Ah, God ! to hear the insect on the leaf pro- 
nouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust ! " 



Ill 

ATTITUDE TOWARDS FOREIGNERS— CHARACTER 
AND ACHIEVEMENTS 

TO understand China's attitude towards foreigners, the 
following considerations must be borne in mind : — 
First, the conservative temperament of the Chinese. 
It is true but misleading, to say that they have "no word or 
written character for patriotism, but 150 ways of writing the 
characters for good luck and long life." For while the Chi- 
nese may have little love for country, they have an intense de- 
votion to their own customs. For nearly 5,000 years, while 
other empires have risen, flourished and fallen, they have lived 
apart, sufficient unto themselves, cherishing their own ideals, 
plodding along their well-worn paths, ignorant of or indifferent 
to the progress of the Western world, mechanically memorizing 
dead classics, and standing still comparatively amid the tre- 
mendous onrush of modern civilization, I say comparatively 
still, for if we carefully study Chinese history, we shall find 
that this vast nation has not been so inert as we have long sup- 
posed. The very revolutions and internal commotions of all 
kinds through which China has passed would have prevented 
mere inertia. But when we compare these movements and the 
changes that they have wrought with the kaleidoscopic trans- 
formations in Europe and America, China appears the most 
stationary of nations. She has moved less in centuries than 
western peoples have in decades. The restless Anglo-Saxon is 
alternately irritated and awed by this massive solidity, not to 
say stolidity. There is, after all, something impressive about 
it, the irapressiveness of a mighty glacier which moves, indeed, 

35 



36 New Forces in Old China 

but so slowly and majestically that the duration of an ordinary 
nation's life appears insignificant as compared with the almost 
timeless majesty of the Chinese Empire. 

Second, the vastness of China. Her territory and popula- 
tion are so enormous that her people found sufficient scope for 
their energies within their own borders. They therefore felt 
independent of outsiders. The typical European nation is so 
limited in area and is so near to equally civilized and powerful 
peoples that it could not if it would live unto itself. The situa- 
tion of most nations forces them into relations with others. 
But China had a third of the human race and a tenth of the 
habitable globe entirely to herself, with no neighbours who had 
anything that she really cared for. It was inevitable, therefore, 
that a naturally conservative people should become a self-cen- 
tred and self-satisfied people. 

Third, the character of adjacent nations. None of them 
were equal to the Chinese in civilization and learning, while in 
territory and population, they were relatively insignificant. 
Even Japan, by far the most powerful of them, has only a tenth 
of China's population, while her remarkable progress in intelli- 
gence and power is a matter of less than a couple generations. 
Until recently, indeed, Japan was as backward as China and 
was not ashamed to receive many of her ideas from her larger 
neighbour, as the number of Chinese characters in the Japanese 
language plainly show. As for China's other neighbours, who 
were they? Weak nations which abjectly sent tribute by com- 
missioners who grovelled before the august Emperor of the 
Middle Kingdom, or barbarous tribes which the Chinese re- 
garded about as Americans regard the aboriginal Indians. 
Gibson translates the following passage from a Chinese histor- 
ian as illustrative at once of China's haughty contempt of out- 
siders and of her reasons for it : 

" The former kings in measuring out the land put the Imperial territory 
in the centre. Inside was the Chinese Empire, and outside were the bar- 
barous nations. The barbarians are covetous and greedy of gain. Their 



Attitude Towards Foreigners 37 

hair hangs down over their bodies, and their coats are buttoned on the 
left side. They have human faces, but the hearts of beasts. They are 
distinguished from the natives of the Empire both by their manners and 
their dress. They differ both in their customs and their food, and in lan- 
guage they are utterly unintelligible. . . . On this account the ancient 
sage kings treated them like birds and beasts. They did not contract 
treaties, nor did they attack them. To form a treaty is simply to spend 
treasure and to be deceived ; to attack them is simply to wear out the 
troops and provoke raids. . . . Thus the outer are not to be brought in- 
side. They must be held at a distance, avoiding familiarity, ... If 
they show a leaning towards right principles and present tributary offer- 
ings, they should be treated with a yielding etiquette ; but bridling and 
repression must never be relaxed for conforming to circumstance. Such 
was the constant principle of the sage monarchs in ruling and controlling 
the barbarian tribes." 

It is not surprising, therefore, that when foreigners 
from the distant West sought to force their way into 
China, the Chinese, knowing nothing of the countries 
from which they came, should have regarded them in accord- 
ance with their traditional belief and policy regarding the in- 
feriority of all outsiders. 

The resultant diiificulty was intensified by the in- 
difference, to use no harsher term, of the foreigner to 
the fact that the Chinese are a very ceremonious people, ex- 
tremely punctilious in all social relations and disposed to re- 
gard a breach of etiquette as a cardinal sin. "Face" is a 
national institution which must be preserved at all hazards. 
No one can get along with the Chinese who does not respect it. 

" It is an integral part of both Chinese theory and practice that realities 
are of much less importance than appearances. If the latter can be 
saved, the former may be altogether surrendered. This is the essence of 
that mysterious * face ' of which we are never done hearing in China, 
The line of Pope might be the Chinese national motto : * Act well your 
part, there all the honour lies '; not, be it observed, doing well what is to be 
done, but consummate acting, contriving to convey the appearance of a 
thing or a fact, whatever the realities may be. This is Chinese high art ; 



38 



New Forces in Old China 



this is success. It is self-respect, and it involves and implies the respect 
of others. It is, in a word, • face.' The preservation of ' face ' fre- 
quently requires that one should behave in an arbitrary and violent man- 
ner merely to emphasi/e his protests against the course of current events. 
He or she must fly into a violent rage, he or she must use reviling and 
perhaps imprecatory language, else it will not be evident to the spectators 
of the drama, in which he is at the moment acting, that he is aware just 
what ought to be done by a person in his precise situation; and then he 
will have ' no way to descend from the stage,' or in other words, he will 
have lost ' face.' " ^ 

Even in death this remains the ruling passion. Chi- 
nese coffins require much wood and are an expensive 
burden in this land where timber is scarce, for Confucius said 
that a coffin should be five inches thick. So the poorer Chi- 
nese thriftily meet this requirement by making the sides and 
ends hollow ! Thus " face " is saved. 

^ In these circumstances, it was very important that the rela- 
tions of Europeans to China should be characterized not only 
by justice but by tact and at least decent respect for the feel- 
ings and customs of the people. The chief cause of China's 
hostility to foreigners undoubtedly lies in the notorious and 
often contemptuous disregard of these things by the majority 
of the white men who have entered China and by the Govern- 
ments which have backed them. 

There is much in the Chinese that is worthy of our respect- 
ful recognition. Multitudes are indeed, stolid and ignorant, 
but multitudes, too, have strong, intelligent features. Thou- 
sands of children have faces as bright and winning as those of 
American children. More strongly than ever do I feel that 
Europe and America have not done justice to the character of 
the Chinese. I do not refer to the bigoted and corrupt Manchu 
officials, or to the lawless barbarians who, like the " lewd fellows 
of the baser sort " in other lands, are ever ready to follow the 
leadership of a demagogue. But I refer to the Chinese people 

* Smith, " Rex Christus," pp. 107, 108. 



Attitude Towards Foreigners 39 

as a whole. Their view-point is so radically different from 
ours that we have often harshly misjudged them, when the real 
trouble has lain in our failure to understand them. 

Let us be free enough from prejudice and passion to respect 
a people whose national existence has survived the mutations 
of a definitely known historic period of thirty-seven centuries 
and of an additional legendary period that runs back no man 
knows how far into the haze of a hoary antiquity ; who are 
frugal, patient, industrious and respectful to parents, as we are 
not ; whose astronomers made accurate recorded observations 
200 years before Abraham left Ur ; who used firearms at the 
beginning of the Christian era ; who first grew tea, manufac- 
tured gunpowder, made pottery, glue and gelatine ; who wore 
silk and lived in houses when our ancestors wore the undressed 
skins of wild animals and slept in caves ; who invented print- 
ing by movable types 500 years before that art was known in 
Europe ; who discovered the principles of the mariner's com- 
pass without which the oceans could not be crossed, conceived 
the idea of artificial inland waterways and dug a canal 600 
miles long ; who made mountain roads which, in the opinion of 
Dr. S. Wells Williams, " when new probably equalled in engi- 
neering and construction anything of the kind ever built by 
Romans; " and who invented the arch to which our modern 
architecture is so greatly indebted. 

In the Great Bell Temple two miles from Peking is one of 
the wonderful bells of the world. It is fourteen feet high, 
thirty-four feet in circumference at the rim, nine inches thick 
and weighs 120,000 pounds. It is literally covered inside and 
out with Chinese characters consisting of extracts from the 
sacred writings, and the Rev. Dr. John Wherry, who is an 
expert in the Chinese language, says that there is " not one 
imperfect character among them." The bell when struck by 
the big wooden clapper emits a deep musical note that can be 
heard for miles. Such a magnificent bell vividly illustrates 
the stage of civilization reached by the Chinese while Europe 



40 New Forces in Old China 

was comparatively barbarous, for the bell was cast as far back 
as 1406 in the reign of Yung-loh, and the present temple build- 
ings were erected about it in 1578. The Germans began using 
paper in 1190, but Sven Hedin found Chinese paper 1,650 
years old and there is evidence that paper was in common use 
by the Chinese 150 years before Christ. Until a few hundred 
years ago, European business was conducted on the basis of 
coin or barter. But long before that, the Chinese had banks 
and issued bills of exchange. There has recently been placed 
in the British Museum a bank-note issued by Hung-Wu, Em- 
peror of China, in 1368. 

The Chinese exalt learning and, alone among the nations of 
the earth, make scholarship a test of fitness for official position. 
True, that scholarship moves along narrow lines of Confucian 
classics, but surely such knowledge is a higher qualification for 
office than the brute strength which for centuries gave prece- 
dence among our ancestors. A Chinese writer explains as fol- 
lows the gradations in relative worth as they are esteemed by 
his countrymen : '< First the scholar : because mind is superior 
to wealth, and it is the intellect that distinguishes man above 
the lower orders of beings, and enables him to provide food 
and raiment and shelter for himself and for other creatures. 
Second, the farmer : because the mind cannot act without the 
body, and the body cannot exist without food, so that farming 
is essential to the existence of man, especially in civilized 
society. Third, the mechanic : because next to food, shelter 
is a necessity, and the man who builds a house comes next in 
honour to the man who provides food. Fourth, the trades- 
man : because, as society increases and its wants are multi- 
plied, men to carry on exchange and barter become a neces- 
sity, and so the merchant comes into existence. His occupation 
— shaving both sides, the producer and consumer — tempts him 
to act dishonestly ; hence his low grade. Fifth, the soldier 
stands last and lowest in the list, because his business is to 
destroy and not to build up society. He consumes what others 



Attitude Towards Foreigners 41 

produce, but produces nothing himself that can benefit man- 
kind. He is, perhaps, a necessary evil." * 

While the Government of China is a paternal despotism in 
form and while it is always weak and corrupt and often cruel 
and tyrannical in practice, nevertheless there is a larger measure 
of individual freedom than might be supposed. " There are 
no passports, no restraints on liberty, no frontiers, no caste 
prejudices, no food scruples, no sanitary measures, no laws 
except popular customs and criminal statutes. China is in 
many senses one vast republic, in which personal restraints 
have no existence." ' 

We must not form our opinion from the Chinese whom we 
see in the United States. True, most of them are kindly, 
patient and industrious, while some are highly intelligent. 
But, with comparatively few exceptions, they are from the 
lower classes of a single province of Kwan-tung — Cantonese 
coolies. The Chinese might as fairly form their opinion of 
Americans from our day-labourers. But there are able men in 
the Celestial Empire. Bishop Andrews returned from China 
to characterize the Chinese as ** a people of brains." When 
Viceroy Li Hung Chang visited this country, all who met him 
unhesitatingly pronounced him a great man. The New York 
Tribune characterizes the late Liu Kan Ji, Viceroy of Nanking, 
as a man who " rendered inestimable services to China and to 
the whole world," " a man of action, who acted with a strong 
hand and masterful leadership and at the same time with a 
justice and a generosity that made him at once feared, respected 
and loved." 

After General Grant's tour around the world, he told Senator 
Stewart that the most astonishing thing which he had seen was 
that wherever the Chinese had come into competition with the 
Jew, the Chinese had driven out the Jew. We know the per- 
sistence of the Jew, that he has held his own against every 

' Quoted by Beach, " Dawn on the Hills of T'ang," pp. 45, 46. 
2 E. H. Parker, " China." 



42 New Forces in Old China 

other people. Despite the fact that he has no home and no 
Government, that he has been ridiculed and persecuted by all 
men, that everywhere he is an alien in race, country and re- 
ligion, he has laboured on, patiently, resolutely, distancing 
every rival, surmounting every obstacle, compelling even his 
enemies to acknowledge his shrewdness and his determination, 
till to-day in Russia, in Austria, in Germany, in England, the 
Jew is bitterly conceded to be master in the editorial chair, at 
the bar, in the universities, in the counting-house and in the 
banking office ; while the proudest of monarchs will undertake 
no enterprise requiring large expenditure until he is assured of 
the support of the keen-eyed, swarthy-visaged men who control 
the sinews of war. Generations of exclusion from agriculture 
and the mechanical arts and of devotion to commerce, have 
developed and inbred in the Jew a marvellous facility for trade. 
And yet this race, which has so abundantly demonstrated its 
ability to cope with the Greek, the Slav and the Teuton, finds 
itself outreached in cunning, outworn in persistence and over- 
matched in strength by an olive-complexioned, almond-eyed 
fellow with felt shoes, baggy trousers, loose tunic, round cap 
and swishing queue, who represents such swarming myriads 
that the mind is confused in the attempt to comprehend the 
enormous number. The canny Scotchman and the shrewd 
Yankee are alike discomfited by the Chinese. Those who do 
not believe it should ask the American and European traders 
who are being crowded out of Saigon, Shanghai, Bangkok, 
Singapore, Penang, Batavia and Manila. In many of the ports 
of Asia outside of China, the Chinese have shown themselves 
to be successful colonizers, able to meet competition, so that 
to-day they own the most valuable property and control the 
bulk of the trade. It is true that the Chinese are inordinately 
conceited ; but shades of the Fourth of July orator, screams of 
the American eagle ! it requires considerable self-possession in 
a Yankee to criticize any one else on the planet for conceit. 
The Chinese have not, at least, padded a census to make the 



Attitude Towards Foreigners 43 

world believe that they are greater than they really are. In 
June, 1903, the same New York newspaper that gave the hor- 
rible details of the burning of a negro by an American mob 
within thirty miles of Philadelphia announced that a Chinese, 
Chung Hui Wang, had taken the highest honours in the gradu- 
ating class at Yale University. Another New York journal, in 
commenting on the fact that Chao Chu, son of the former 
Chinese minister, Wu Ting Fang, was graduated in 1904 at 
the Atlantic City High School as the valedictorian of a class of 
thirty-one, remarked : 

" At every commencement there are honours enough to go around, and 
those won by the Celestial contestants will not be begrudged them. Yet 
it is not exactly flattering to smart American youth to realize that repre- 
sentatives of an effete civilization after a few years' acquaintance with 
Western ways can meet our home talent on its own ground and carry off 
the prizes of scholarship." 

A British consular official, who spent many years in China and 
who speaks the language, declares that in his experience of the 
Chinese their fidelity is extraordinary, their sense of responsi- 
bility in positions of trust very keen, and that they have a 
very high standard of gratitude and honour. " I cannot 
recall a case," he says, '* where any Chinese friend has left 
me in the lurch or played me a dirty trick, and few of us 
can say the same of our own colleagues and countrymen." 
The Hon. Chester Holcombe, who quotes this, adds — " The 
writer, after years of experience and intimate acquaintance 
with all classes of Chinese from every part of the Empire, is 
convinced that the characterization of the race as thus given 
by those who at least are not over-friendly does it only scant 
justice." ^ 

Many quote against the Chinese the familiar lines — 

" for ways that are dark 

And for tricks that are vain, 
The heathen Chinee is peculiar," 

* The Outlook, February 13, 1904. 



44 New Forces in Old China 

But whoever reads the whole poem will see the force of the 
London Spectator's opinion that it is a "satire of the Amer- 
ican selfishness which is the main strength of the cry against the 
cheap labour of the Chinese," and that ** it would not be easy 
for a moderately intelligent man to avoid seeing that Mr. Bret 
Harte wished to delineate the Chinese simply as beating the 
Yankee at his own evil game, and to delineate the Yankee as 
not at all disposed to take offense at the " cheap labour " of his 
Oriental rival, until he discovered that he could not cheat the 
cheap labourer half so completely as the cheap labourer could 
cheat him." 

It is common for people to praise the Japanese and to sneer 
at the Chinese. All honour to the Japanese for their splendid 
achievements. With marvellous celerity they have adopted 
many modern ideas and inventions. They are worthy of the 
respect they receive. But those who have made a close study 
of both peoples unhesitatingly assert that the Chinese have 
more solid elements of permanence and power. The Japanese 
have the quickness, the enthusiasm, the intelligence of the 
French ; but the Chinese unite to equal intelligence the plod- 
f'ng persistence of the Germans, and the old fable of the tor- 
oise and the hare is as true of nations as it is of individuals. 
Unquestionably, the Chinese are the most virile race in Asia. 
** Wherever a Chinese can get a foot of ground and a quart of 
ater he will make something grow." Colquhoun quotes 
lichthoven as saying that " among the various races of man- 
kind, the Chinese is the only one which in all climates, the 
hottest and the coldest, is capableof great and lasting activity." 
And he states as his own opinion: " She has all the elements 
to build up a great living force. One thing alone is wanted — 
the will, the directing power. That supplied, there are to be 
found in abundance in China the capacity to carry out, the 
brains to plan, the hands to work." 



IV 

A TYPICAL PROVINCE 

SHANTUNG is not only one of the greatest, but it is in 
many respects one of the most interesting of all the 
provinces of China. Its length east and west is about 
543 miles and in area it is nearly as large as the whole of New 
England. The name, Shantung, signifies "the sun shining 
through the trees," but tillable land has become so valu- 
able that trees are now comparatively few save in the villages 
and temples and about the groves of the rich. But for the 
most part, Shantung resembles the great prairie regions of the 
western part of the United States, broken by occasional ranges 
of hills and low mountains. The soil is generally fertile, 
though in the southwestern part I found some stony regions 
where the soil is thin and poor. South of Chinan-fu one finds 
the loess, a light friable earth which yields so easily to wheel 
and hoof and wind and water that the stream of travel through 
successive generations has worn deep cuts in which the traveller 
may journey for hours and sometimes for days so far below the 
general level of the country that he can see nothing but the 
sides of the cut and in turn cannot be seen by others. The 
character of the soil and the power of the wind and rain have 
combined not only to excavate these long passages, but to cast 
up innumerable mounds and hills, often of such fantastic shapes 
that one is reminded of the quaint and curious formations in 
the Bad Lands of the Missouri, though the loess hillocks lack 
the brilliant colouring of the American formations. 

Throughout the province as a whole, almost every possible 
square rod of ground is carefully cultivated by the industrious 
people, so that in the summer time the whole country appears 

45 



46 New Forces in Old China 

to be continuous gardens and farms dotted with innumerable 
villages. Wheat appears to be the chief crop and, as in the 
Dakotas, the entire landscape seems to be one splendid field of 
waving, yellowing grain. But early in June the wheat disap- 
pears as if by magic, for the whole population apparently, men, 
women and children, turn out and harvest it with amazing 
quickness in spite of the fact that everything is done by hand. 
Men and donkeys carry the grain to smooth, hard ground 
spaces, where it is threshed by a heavy roller stone drawn by a 
donkey or an ox or by men, and several times I saw it drawn 
by women. Then it is winnowed by being pitched into the 
air for the wind to drive out the feathery chaff. The methods 
vividly illustrate the first Psalm and other Bible references — 
gleaning, muzzling " the ox when he treadeth out the corn," 
the threshing floor and "the chaff which the wind driveth 
away." 

One might suppose that after the wheat harvest, stubble 
fields would be much in evidence. But they are not, for the 
millet promptly appears. It is hardly noticeable when the 
wheat is standing. But it grows rapidly, and as soon as the 
wheat is out of the way, it covers great areas with its refreshing 
green, looking in its earlier stages like young corn. It is of 
two varieties. One is a little higher than wheat, with hanging 
head and a small yellow grain. The other is the kao-liang, 
which grows to a height of about twelve feet. When small, it 
is thinned out to one stalk or sometimes two in a hill so that it 
can develop freely. This stalk is to the common people almost 
as serviceable as the bamboo to tropical dwellers. It is used 
for fences, ceilings, walls and many other purposes. The grain 
of the two varieties is the staple food, few but the richer 
classes eating rice which is not raised in the north and is high 
in price, A third species of millet, shu-shu, is used chiefly 
for distilling a whiskey that is largely used but almost always 
at home and at night so that little drunkenness is seen by the 
traveller. 




A RUT IN THE LOESS REGION 



A Typical Province 47 

Fuel is very scarce, trees being few and coal, though 
abundant, not being mined to any extent. So the people cook 
with stalks, straw, roots, etc., and in winter pile on additional 
layers of wadded cotton garments. Chinese houses are not 
heated as ours are, though the flues from the cooking fire, run- 
ning under the brick kang, give some heat, too much at times. 

Silk is produced in large quantities and mulberry trees are 
so common as to add greatly to the beauty of the country. As 
the cocoons cannot be left on the trees for fear of thieves, the 
leaves are picked off and taken into houses where the worms 
are kept. 

Poppy fields, too, are numerous. The flowers are gloriously 
beautiful. I often saw men gathering the opium in the early 
morning. After the blossoms fall off, the pod is slit and the 
whitish juice, oozing out, is carefully scraped off. High hills 
rising to low mountains add beauty to the western part of Shan- 
tung, while the more numerous trees scattered over the fields as 
well as in the villages make extensive regions look like vast 
parks. 

The people are among the finest types of the Chinese, 
tall, strong and, in many instances, of marked intellectual 
power. To the Chinese, Shantung is the most sacred of the 
provinces, for here were born the two mighty sages, Confucius 
and Mencius. 

Politically, the Province is divided into ten prefectures, each 
under a prefectural magistrate, called a Chik-fu, and with a 
capital which has the termination " fu." I-chow-fu, for example, 
is a prefectural city. Each fu is subdivided into ten districts 
under a district magistrate or Chich-hsien, the capital, or county 
seat as we should call it, having the termination <'hsien " or 
" hien ' ' as for example Wei-hsien. There are 108 of these hsien 
cities. Between the fu and the hsien cities are a few chou cities 
as Chining-chou. They are practically small fus, Chining-chou 
having four hsiens under it. The magistrate is called a Chou- 
kwan and is responsible directly to a Tao-tai who is an official 



48 New Forces in Old China 

between the prefectural magistrate or Chik-fu and the Gov- 
ernor. There are three Tao-tais in the province. At the 
provincial capitol are the treasurer or Fan-tai, the Nieh-tai or 
judge, the Hueh-tai or commissioner of education and the salt 
commissioner, Yuen-yun. These are all high officials. Over 
all is the Governor, virtually a monarch subject only to the 
nominal supervision of the Imperial Government at Peking. 
He is appointed and may at any time be removed by the 
Emperor, but during his tenure of office he has almost un- 
limited power. 

My tour of China included two interesting months in this 
great province. As I approached Chefoo on the steamer from 
Korea, I was impressed by the beauty of the scene. The water 
was smooth and sparkling in the bright spring sunshine. The 
harbour is exceptionally lovely. The shore lines are irregular, 
terminating in a high promonotory on which are situated the 
buildings of the various consulates. To the right, as the 
traveller faces the city, is the business section with its wharves 
and well-constructed commercial buildings, while on the left is 
the wide curve of a fine beach on which front the foreign hotel 
and the handsome buildings of the China Inland Mission. 
Beyond the city, rises a noble hill on the slopes of which stand 
the buildings of the Presbyterian Mission. From the water, 
Chefoo is one of the most charming cities in all China. 

Big, lusty Chinese in their wide, clumsy boats called sam- 
pans, swarmed in the harbour. Sculling alongside, the boat- 
man caught the rail of the steamer with his boat-hook and with 
the agility of a monkey scrambled up the long pole, dropped it 
into the water and began to hustle for business. The babel of 
voices bidding for passengers was like the tumult of Niagara 
hack-drivers, but we were so fortunate as to be met by Dr. W. 
F. Faries and the Rev. W. O. Elterich of the Presbyterian 
Mission and under their skillful guidance, we were soon taken 
ashore. 

A closer view of the Chinese city proved less attractive than 



A Typical Province 49 

the captivating one from the harbour. The population long 
ago over-ran the limits of the old city so that to-day most of 
the people are outside the walls. Within those ancient battle- 
ments, the streets are narrow and crooked, while the filth is in- 
describable. The visitor who wishes to see something of the 
work and to enjoy the hospitality of the noble company of Pres- 
byterian missionaries on Temple Hill must either pass through 
that reeking mess or go around it. There is, after all, not 
much choice in the routes, for the Chinese population outside 
the walls has simply squatted there without much order, and 
the corkscrew streets are not only thronged with people and 
donkeys and mules, but malodorous with ditches through which 
all the nastiness of the crowded habitations trickles. Why 
pestilence does not carry off the whole population is a mystery 
to the visitor from the West, especially as he sees the pools out 
of which the people drink, their shores lined with washerwomen 
and the water dark and thick with the dirt of decades. Byron's 
words in " Childe Harold " are as true of Chefoo as of Lisbon : 

" But whoso entereth within this town, 

That, sheening far, a celestial seems to be. 
Disconsolate will wander up and down 

'Mid many things unsightly to strange e'e ; 
For hut and palace show like filthily. 

The dingy denizens are reared in dirt, 
No personage of high or mean degree 

Doth care for cleanness of surtout, or shirt, 
Though shent with Egypt's plague, unkempt, unwashed, unhurt ! " 

The first open port of Shantung was Teng-chou-fu, a quaint 
old city on the far northeastern point of the Shantung prom- 
ontory. It has been outstripped in importance by its later 
rival, Chefoo, and is now ignored by the through steamers and 
seldom visited by travellers. As the trip from Chefoo by land 
requires two long hard days over a mountain range and as time 
was precious, I decided to go by water. The regular coasting 
steamer was not running on account of danger from pirates, 



50 New Forces in Old China 

who had been unusually bold and murderous in attacking pass- 
ing vessels. But I succeeded in hiring a small launch. It was 
a trip of fifty-five miles along the coast on the open sea, but the 
weather was good and so we risked it. Several of the mission- 
aries took advantage of the occasion to visit friends in Teng- 
chou-fu so that a pleasant little party was formed. 

We had intended to start at 7:30 a. m., but some of our lug- 
gage and chair coolies, who had been engaged to take us from 
Temple Hill to the launch at 6:30, did not come, and we had 
to press into service some untrained " boys." Then, our chair 
coolies, who had been carefully instructed as to their destination 
and who had solemnly asserted that they knew just where to go, 
got separated from the others and calmly took us to the Union 
Church. We appreciated their apparent conviction that we 
needed to go to church, but we vainly tried to make them un- 
derstand that we wanted to go somewhere else. The delay 
would have become exasperating if a small English boy who 
knew Chinese had not helped us out. Then the two coolies 
who were carrying our valises and the lunch-baskets went an- 
other way and sat down en route "to rest." They would 
doubtless be sitting there yet if, after waiting till our patience 
was exhausted, we had not sent men to find them. But that is 
Asia. 

However, all arrived at last and at 8:20 a. m. we cast off. 
The day was glorious and as the sea was not rough enough to 
make any one ill, we had a delightful trip along the coast with 
its bare, brown hills so much resembling the scenery of Cali- 
fornia. We reached Teng-chou-fu at 3:15 and that the pirates 
were not imaginary was evident for as we entered the harbour, 
they made a dash and captured a juuk less than a mile away. 
An alarm cannon was fired and soldiers were running to the 
beach as we landed. 

While in Teng-chou-fu, we witnessed a pathetic ceremony. 
There had been no rain for several weeks. The kao-liang was 
withering and the farmers could not plant their beans on the 



A Typical Province 51 

ground from which the winter wheat had been cut. The peo- 
ple had become alarmed as the drought continued, and they 
were parading the streets bearing banners, wearing chaplets of 
withered leaves on their heads to remind the gods that the 
vegetation was dying, beating drums to attract the attention of 
the god, and ever and anon falling on their knees and praying 
— **0 Great Dragon! send us rain." It was pitiful. This 
country is fertile but the population is so enormous that, in the 
absence of any manufacturing or mining, the people even in the 
most favoured seasons live from hand to mouth, and a drought 
means the starvation of multitudes. 



A SHENDZA IN SHANTUNG 

THE spring of 1901 was not the most propitious time 
for a tour of the province of Shantung. It was 
shortly after the suppression of the Boxer outbreak 
and the country was still in an unsettled condition. The 
veteran Dr. Hunter Corbett, who had resided in the province 
for a generation said, " We are living on a volcano and we do 
not know at what moment another eruption will occur." 
Students returning from the examinations at the capitol told the 
people that the Boxers were to rise again and kill all the for- 
eigners and Chinese Christians. The missionaries did not be- 
lieve the report, but they said tliat it might be believed by the 
people and cause a renewal of agitation as such rumours the 
year before had been an important factor in inciting the popu- 
lace to violence. But the interior of this great province was 
one of the objective points of my tour and I could not miss it. 
Besides, if the missionaries could go, I could. Wives, how- 
ever, were resolutely debarred. No woman had yet ventured 
into the interior and the authorities refused to approve their 
going. In case of trouble, a man can fight or run, but a 
woman is peculiarly helpless. Nor could we forget that the 
Chinese during the Boxer outbreak treated foreign women who 
fell into their hands with horrible atrocity. So the wives, rather 
against their will, remained in the ports. 

Arrangements are apt to move slowly in this land of delibera- 
tion. The genial and efficient United States Consul at Chefoo, 
the Hon. John Fowler, joked me a little about my hurry to 
start, laughingly remarking that this was Asia and not New 
York, and that I must not expect things to be done on the 

52 



A Shendza in Shantung 53 

touch of a button as at home. But finding that a German 
steamer was to leave the next day for Tsing-tau, the starting 
point for the interior, the energetic missionaries helped me to 
" hustle the East " to get off on it. The Chinese tailor gasped 
when I told him that I must have a khaki suit by six the fol- 
lowing evening, but when he learned that I was to sail and 
therefore could not wait, he promised rather than lose the job. 
The next day the steamer agent notified me that the sailing 
hour had been changed to four o'clock. I sent word to the 
tailor with faint hope of ever seeing that suit, and when a later 
message gave three o'clock as the real time, I abandoned hope. 
But the enterprising Celestial made his fingers fly, finished the 
suit by 2:50 p. M., and took it to the house of my hostess. 
Finding that I had already gone to the steamer, he hurried off 
to the wharf, hired a sampan, sculled a mile and panting but 
triumphant placed the suit in my hands just as the steamer was 
getting under way. His charge for the suit, including all his 
trouble and the cost of the sampan, was $'] Mexican (^3.50). 

Saturday found me in Tsing-tau, and Monday, I turned my 
face inland, accompanied by the Rev. J. H. Laughlin and Dr. 
Charles H. Lyon, and, as far as Wei-hsien, by the Rev. Frank 
Chalfant, all of the Presbyterian mission, besides Mr. William 
Shipway of the English Baptist mission, who was to accompany 
us as far as Ching-chou-fu. To-day, the traveller can jour- 
ney to Chinan-fu, the capital, in a comfortable railway 
car, but I shall always be glad that my visit occurred in the old 
days when the native methods of transportation were the sole 
dependence, for at that time the new German railway was in 
operation only forty-six miles to the old city of Kiao-chou. 

The modes of conveyance in the interior of China are five — 
the donkey, the sedan chair, the wheelbarrow, the cart and the 
shendza (mule litter), and naturally the first problem of the 
traveller is to decide which one he shall adopt. 

The donkey is all right to one accustomed to horseback 
riding. But there is no protection from the sun and rain and 



54 New Forces in Old China 

there are no foreign saddles. The traveller piles his bedding 
on the animal's back and climbs on top, sitting either astride 
or sideways. In either case, the feet dangle unsupported by 
stirrups. It is hard to make long trips in this way, to say 
nothing of the consideration that a man feels like an idiot in 
such circumstances. *' The outside of a horse is indeed good 
for the inside of a man," but a mattress on top of a donkey is 
a different matter. 

The chair is comfortable for short distances, but it is com- 
paratively expensive and, as no change of position is possible, 
one soon becomes tired sitting in the fixed attitude. In pity to 
your coolies, you walk up-hill and you are exposed to inclem- 
ent weather unless you hire a covered chair. This, however, 
is not only hot and stuffy, but it makes people think you an 
aristocrat, as only officials or the rich use such chairs in the 
country, though in cities they are a common means of convey- 
ance. Besides, I had travelled in a chair in Korea and I 
wished to try something else in China. 

The Chinese wheelbarrow is a clumsy affair with a narrow 
seat on each side of a central partition. When large and with 
an awning, it is not so uncomfortable, but it is not well adapted 
to a long journey as it is slow and toilsome. When the mud is 
deep, progress is almost impossible. Moreover, the labour of 
the barrow-men constantly excites the sympathy of the humane 
traveller and the dismal screech of the wheel revolving upon 
its unoiled axle is worse than the rasp of filing a saw. The 
Chinese depend upon the shrieks of the wheel to tell them how 
the axle is wearing, but the disconsolate foreigner finds that his 
nerves wear out much faster than the wooden axle. In Tsing- 
tau, that agonizing screech proved too much even for the stolid 
Germans and they posted an ordinance to the effect that all 
barrow axles must be greased. The Chinese demurred, but a 
few arrests taught them obedience, so that now the streets of 
the German metropolis no longer resound with the hysterical 
wails and moans so dear to the heart of the Celestial. 



A Shendza in Shantung ^^ 

The Chinese cart is a curious affair. There are no roads in 
the interior of China, except the ruts that have been made by 
the passing of many feet and wheels for generations. In dry 
weather, they are thick with dust and in the wet season they 
are fathomless with mud. Almost everywhere they are dis- 
tractingly crooked, and in many places they are plentifully be- 
strewn with boulders of varying sizes. Instead of spending 
money in making roads, the Chinese have applied their inge- 
nuity to making an indestructible cart. They build it of heavy 
timbers, with massive wheels, thick spokes and ponderous hubs, 
and as no springs could survive the jolting of such a vehicle, 
the body of the cart is placed directly upon the huge axle. 
Then a couple of big mules are hitched up tandem and driven 
at breakneck speed. A runaway in an American farmer's 
wagon over a corduroy road but feebly suggests the miseries of 
travel in a Chinese cart. It may be good for a dyspeptic, but 
it is about the most uncomfortable conveyance that the in- 
genuity of man has yet devised. The unhappy passenger is 
hurled against the wooden top and sides and is so jolted and 
bumped that, as the small boy said in his composition, "his 
heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, stomach, bones and brains are all 
mixed up." I tried the cart for a while and gently but firmly 
intimated that if nothing better was available, I would walk. I 
am satisfied that nothing short of a modern battleship under 
full steam could make the slightest impression on the typical 
Chinese cart. In my humble opinion, a Chinese cart is like 
any other misfortune in life. When necessary, it should be 
taken uncomplainingly. But the person who takes it unnec- 
essarily has not reached the years of discretion and should be 
assigned a guardian. 

I therefore turned to the shendza. All things considered, it 
is the best conveyance for a long interior journey in China. 
It consists of a couple long poles with a rope basket work in the 
middle and a cover of matting. It is borne by two mules, and 
has the advantage of protecting the traveller from the sun and 



56 New Forces in Old China 

from light rains. An opening in the back gives him the benefit 
of any breeze while it is possible to get occasional relief by 
changing position, as he can either sit upright or lounge. 
Moreover, he can keep his bedding and a little food with him. 
He need not walk up hills in mercy to weary coolies and he 
can make the longer daily journeys which the superior endur- 
ance of mules permits. In ordinary conditions on level ground, 
my mules averaged about four miles an hour. The motion is a 
kind of sieve-and-pepper-box shaking that is not so bad, 
provided the mules behave themselves, which is not often. 
My rear mule had a meek and quiet spirit. He was a dis- 
couraged animal upon which the sorrows of life had told 
heavily and which had reached that age when he appeared to 
have no ambition in life except to stop and think or to lie down 
and rest. The lead mule, however, was a cantankerous beast 
that wanted to fight everything within reach and went into 
hysterics every time any other animal passed him. As this oc- 
curred a score of times a day, the uncertainties of the situa- 
tion were interesting, especially when the rear mule paused or 
laid down without having previously notified the lead mule. 
At such times, the sudden stoppage of the power behind and 
the plunging of the power in front threatened the dislocation 
of the entire apparatus, and as there is no way for the traveller 
to get out except over the heels of a mule, life in a shendza is 
not always uneventful. But I soon got used to the motion and 
to the mules, and even learned to read and to doze in com- 
parative comfort while the long -eared animals plodded and 
jerked on in their own way. 

The most trying thing to the humane traveller is the sore- 
ness of the mules' backs. I insisted on having mules whose 
backs were sound, but was told by both missionaries and 
Chinese that they could not be had, especially in summer, as 
the swaying and jerking of the shendza and the sweat and 
dust under the heavy pack-saddle always make sores. It was 
all too true. I examined scores of mules and every one had 








pli^l' 









GERMANS BUILDING RAILWAY BRIDGE IN 

SHANTUNG 



m 


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A SHENDZA IN SHANTUNG 



A Shendza in Shantung 57 

raw and bleeding abrasions and, in some cases, suppurating 
ulcers. For a Chinese, our head muleteer was careful of his 
animals and washed them occasionally, but no practicable care 
apparently can prevent a shendza from making a sore back. 
The only solace I had was the evident indifference of the 
mules themselves. They had never known anything better, 
and seemed to take misery as a matter of course. 

Our party, with the goods we had to carry, for my mission- 
ary friends were returning to their stations with the expecta- 
tion of remaining, included three shendzas, two carts and a 
pack-mule for our provisions. But the "mule" turned out to 
be a donkey and unable to carry all we had planned for a larger 
animal. While wondering how we were to get our supplies 
carried, we learned that a construction train was about to start 
for the end of the track, which was said to be Kaomi, fifty- 
five li * beyond Kiao-chou. We got permission to ride on the 
flat car. In the hope that we might be able to secure a mule or 
another donkey in Kaomi, we got aboard, leaving our shendzas 
and carts to follow. After a lovely ride of an hour through 
wheat-fields interspersed with villages, our train stopped twelve 
li from Kaomi, an unfinished culvert making further progress 
impossible. As our caravan had gone by a different route and 
as no coolies could be hired where we were, the question was 
how to get our goods transported. Fortunately, a German 
Roman Catholic priest, who was also on the construction 
train and who had wheelbarrows for his own goods, cordially 
told us to pile our luggage on top of his. We gratefully ac- 
cepted this kind offer, and giving his coolies some extra cash 
for their labour, they good-naturedly accepted the additional 
burden, while we footed the twelve li to Kaomi, 

But the progress of the barrows was slow and it was half- 
past eight when we reached Kaomi, In the darkness we could 
not find the inn which the magistrate had set aside for foreign- 
ers and the Chinese whom we met gave conflicting replies. 
I A li is about a third of a mile. 



58 New Forces in Old China 

But at that moment, two resident Roman Catholic priests, 
Austrians, appeared and one of them recognized Mr. LaughUn 
as the associate of Dr. Van Schoick, a Presbyterian medical 
missionary who had sympathetically treated a fellow priest dur- 
ing a long and dangerous illness several years before. He 
promptly invited us to go with him, declaring that Dr. Van 
Schoick had saved the life of his dearest friend. He was 
so cordially insistent that we accepted his invitation. Our 
shendzas, carts and pack-mule were we knew not where, and 
we were hungry after our long day. Warned by my experi- 
ence in Korea that the traveller should never trust to the 
punctuality of natives and pack-animals, I had insisted on 
taking our bedding and a little food on the flat car. It was 
well that I did, for we did not see our shendzas that night as 
they arrived after the city gates had been shut so that they 
could not get in. But we had a little cocoa, tinned corn beef, 
condensed milk, butter and marmalade. Same German soldiers 
sent three loaves of coarse bread. Our priestly host added 
some Chinese bread, and so had a good supper and afterwards 
a sound sleep. 

At half-past four the next morning, Mr. Laughlin remarked 
in a forty-horse power tone of voice that it was time to get up. 
By the time the reverberations had died away, we were so wide 
awake that further sleep was out of the question. Our cook 
was nowhere in sight, so we prepared our own breakfast from 
the remains of last night's meal. 

Bidding a grateful farewell to our hospitable priests, we rode 
across an ancient lake bottom, low, flat, wheat-covered and hot 
enough to broil meat. At half- past ten o'clock, we reached 
Fau-chia-chiu, the boundary of the hinterland, where, near a 
temple just outside the wall, we found Governor Yuan Shih 
Kai's military escort awaiting us. It was after sundown when 
we reached Liu-chia-chuang, and we felt half inclined to spend 
the night there with some genial German military engineers, 
but our party had become separated during the day and as 



A Shendza in Shantung 59 

the others had taken a road that did not pass through Liu- 
chia-chuang, we pushed on to Hsi-an-tai, which we reached by 
a little after ten o'clock. By that time, it was so dark that it 
was impossible to go further and we found lodgment in a good - 
sized building which smelled to heaven. The odour was like 
that of a decomposing body. However, it was too late and we 
were too weary either to hunt up smells or to seek another lodg- 
ing place. So after a hasty supper out of our tinned food, we 
put up our cots and went to bed, Mr. Chalfant making a few 
pleasant remarks about the bedbugs that always swarm in such 
a building, the centipedes that sometimes crawl into the ears or 
nostrils of sleepers and the scorpions that occasionally fall from 
the millet-stalk ceiling on to the bed or scuttle across the floor 
to bite the person who unwarily walks in his bare feet. Under 
the influence of such a soporific, I soon fell asleep. The next 
morning we rose early, and while the cook was preparing our 
coffee and eggs, we followed the trail of that awful odour to a 
corner of the building, where, under some millet stalks, we 
found a rude coffin which we had not noticed in the dim candle- 
light of the night before. A Chinese of whom we inquired 
said that it was empty. We could not in courtesy open a 
coffin before dozens of interested Chinese, but it was very 
plain to our olfactories that such an odour required a prompt 
funeral. 

As usual, a great but silent crowd watched me as I wrote 
while the mules were being fed and at Hsien-chung, where 
we stopped at noon to repair a shendza, Mr. Chalfant trans- 
lated a proclamation on a wall stating that an indemnity of 
110,000 taels had to be paid for damage to the railway during 
the Boxer outbreak and that 14,773 taels had been assessed on 
Wei County. The people read it with scowling faces, but they 
said nothing to us, though they looked as if they wanted to. 

At two o'clock, we entered the ruined Presbyterian com- 
pound, a mile southeast of the city of Wei-hsien. It was 
thrilling to hear on the scene of the riot Mr. Chalfant's 



6o New Forces in Old China 

account of the attack by about a thousand furious Boxers; 
to see the place just outside the gate where single-handed and 
with no weapon but a small revolver, he had heroically held 
the mob at bay for several hours until the swarming Boxers, 
awed by his splendid courage, divided, and while several 
hundred held his attention, the rest climbed over the wall at 
another place and fired the mission buildings. That the three 
missionaries escaped with their lives is a wonder. But Mr. 
Chalfant quickly ran to the house where Miss Hawes and Miss 
Boughton were awaiting him, hurried them down -stairs, 
and while the Boxers were smashing the furniture on the other 
side of a closed door, snatched up a ladder, assisted them over 
the compound wall at a point that was providentially un- 
guarded and hid them in a field of grain until darkness 
enabled them to make their way exhausted but unhurt to a camp 
of German soldiers and engineers nine miles distant and to 
escape with them to Tsing-tau. It was a remarkable ex- 
perience. If that door had not happened to be closed, and if 
a ladder had not been carelessly left by a servant beside the 
house, and if the attack itself had not occurred just before 
dark, undoubtedly all three would have been killed. On each 
of those three ifs, lives depended. 

Mr. Fitch cordially welcomed us. Mr. Chalfant killed a 
centipede and various insects crawling on the walls near my 
cot and a little after nine I was asleep. The next day we 
took a walk through the city, impressed by its imposing wall 
and the throngs of people who followed us and watched every 
movement. Outside the wall, we saw a "baby house," a 
small stone building in which the dead children of the poor 
are thrown to be eaten by dogs ! I wanted to examine it, but 
was warned not to do so, as the Chinese imagine that 
foreigners make their medicine out of children's eyes and 
brains, and our crowds of watching Chinese might quickly be- 
come an infuriated mob. 

Immediately on our arrival, we had sent our cards to the 



A Shendza in Shantung 6l 

district magistrate and in the afternoon he sent us an elaborate 
feast. As we were about to retire that evening, he called in a 
gorgeous chair with a retinue of twenty attendants. He stayed 
half an hour and was very cordial, and we had a pleasant inter- 
view. Wei-hsien is famous for its embroideries, and great 
quantities are made, the women workers receiving about fifty 
small cash a day (less than two cents). It was not necessary 
to go to the stores as in America. The shopkeepers brought a 
great number of pieces to our inn, covering the kang and every 
available table, chair and box with exquisite bits of handi- 
work. Lured by the sight I became reckless and bought four 
handsome pieces for 19,800 small cash ($6.06). 

Resuming our journey on a warm, sunny day, we entered 
Chiang-loa at noon. It was market day, and the greatest 
crowd yet fairly blocked the streets. The soldiers had diffi- 
culty in clearing a way for us. But while much curiosity 
was expressed, there was no sign of hostility. Then we 
journeyed on through the interminable fields of ripening wheat. 
Soon, mountains, which we had dimly seen for several hours, 
grew more distinct and as we approached Ching-chou-fu to- 
wards evening, the scene was one of great beauty — the yellow- 
ing grain gently undulating in the soft breeze, the mountains 
not really more than 3,000 feet in height, but from our stand 
on the plain looking lofty, massive and delightfully refreshing 
to the eye after our hot and dusty journeying. The city has a 
population of about 25,000 and its numerous trees look so in- 
vitingly green that the traveller is eager to enter. 

But in this case also, distance lent enchantment, for within, 
while there was not the filth of a Korean village, yet the narrow 
streets were far from clean. Not a blade of grass relieved the 
bare, dusty ground trampled by many feet, while the low, mud- 
plastered houses were not inviting. A Chinese seldom thinks 
of making repairs. He builds once, usually with rough stone 
plastered with mud or with sun-dried brick. The roof is 
thatched and the floor is the beaten earth, although in the 



62 New Forces in Old China 

better houses it is stone or brick. In time, the mud-plaster 
or, if the walls are of sun-dried brick, the wall itself begins to 
disintegrate. But it is let alone, as long as it does not make 
the house uninhabitable, while paint is unknown. So the gen- 
eral appearance of a Chinese town is squalid and tumble- 
down. Even the yamen of a district magistrate presents 
crumbhng walls, unkempt courtyards, rickety buildings and 
paper-covered windows full of holes. The palaces of the rich 
are often expensive, but the Asiatic has little of our ideas of 
comfort and order. 

The Rev. J. P. Bruce and Mr. R. C. Forsyth, of the English 
Baptist mission, the only members of the station who were 
present, gave us a hearty welcome. The green shrubbery, 
the bath-tub, the dinner of roast beef and the clean bedroom, 
were like a bit of hospitable old England set down in China. 
None of the buildings here were injured by the Boxers. But 
the marauders took whatever they could use, as dishes, utensils, 
glass, linen, clothes, silver and plated ware, jewelry, etc., the 
total loss being ;!^4,ooo, including ;^i,ooo for machinery. 
That machinery has an interesting history. One of the mem- 
bers of the mission, Mr. A. G. Jones, conceived the idea of 
relieving the poverty of the Chinese by introducing cotton 
weaving. Having some private means and being a mechanical 
genius, he spent two years and ;^ 1,000 in devising the 
necessary machinery, much of which he made himself. He 
had completed the plant and was trying to induce the Chinese 
to organize a company of Christians who would operate the 
factory, when the building was burned by the Boxers and the 
machinery reduced to a heap of twisted scrap-iron. 

The women we met in these interior districts had only 
partially bound feet, though they were still far from the natural 
size. It was surprising to see how freely the women walked, 
especially as several that I saw were carrying babies. But it 
was rather a stumpy walk. Women of the higher class have 
smaller feet and never walk in the public streets. 



A Shendza In Shantung 63 

We left Ching-chou-fu Monday morning, our genial hosts, 
including Mr. Shipvvay, who remained here, accompanying us 
a couple of miles. The trees were more numerous, and as the 
weather was cool, I greatly enjoyed the day. But the next 
day, we plodded under dripping skies and through sticky mud 
to Chang-tien, where a night of unusual discomfort in an inn 
literally alive with fleas and mosquitoes prepared us to enjoy a 
tiffin with a lonely English Baptist outpost, the genial Rev. 
William A. Wills, at Chou-tsian, which we reached at noon 
the following day, and then, thirty li further on, the gracious 
hospitality of the main station at Chou-ping. Only three men 
were present of the regular station force of seven families and 
two single women, but they gave us all the more abundant 
welcome in their isolation and loneliness. Of the 2,577 
Chinese Christians of this station, 132 were murdered by the 
Boxers and seventy or more died from consequent exposure and 
injuries. 

A vast, low lying plain begins forty li north of Chou-ping 
and extends northeastward as far as Tien-tsin. This plain is sub- 
ject to destructive inundations from the Yellow River and the 
scenes of ruin and suffering are sometimes appalling. Our inn 
at Luang-hsien the next night was a two-story brick building 
with iron doors, stone floors, walls two and a-half feet thick and 
rooms dark, gloomy, ill-smelling as a dungeon and of course 
swarming with vermin, as savage bites promptly testified. My 
missionary companion said that it was probably an old pawn- 
shop. Pawnbroking is esteemed an honourable, as well as 
lucrative, business in China, and the brokers are influential 
men and often have considerable property in their shops. The 
people are so poor that they sometimes pawn their winter clothes 
in summer and their summer ones in winter. 

At noon the next day, we reached Chinan-fu, having made 
seventy li in six hours over muddy roads. Dr. James B. Neal 
of the Presbyterian mission was alone in the city and gave us 
hospitable welcome to his home and to the splendid missionary 



64 New Forces in Old China 

work of the station, though he rather suggestively stopped our 
coolies when they were about to carry our bedding into the 
house. He was wise, too, for that bedding had been used in 
too many native inns to be prudently admitted to a well- 
ordered household. 

As we walked through the city, the narrow streets were 
literally jammed, for it was market day. Foreigners had been 
scarce since the Boxer outbreak a year before. Besides, many 
of the people were from the country where foreigners are 
seldom seen anyway. So we made as great a sensation as a 
circus in an American city. A multitude followed us, and 
wherever we stopped hundreds packed the narrow streets. 
Our soldiers cleared the way, but they had no difficulty, for 
though the people were inquisitive they were not hostile. 
Three magnificent springs burst forth in the heart of the city, 
one as large as the famous spring in Roanoke, Virginia, which 
supplies all that city with water. It was about a hundred feet 
across. The water might easily be piped all over Chinan-fu. 
But this is China, and so the people patiently walk to the 
springs for their daily supply. 




VI 

AT THE GRAVE OF CONFUCIUS 

'E were now approaching the most sacred places of 
China. On a hot July afternoon of the second day 
from Chinan-fu, the capital of the province, we saw 
the noble proportions of Tai-shan, the holy mountain. The 
Chinese have five sacred mountains, but this is the most vener- 
ated of all. Its altitude is not great, only a little over 4,000 
feet, but it rises so directly from the plain and its outlines are 
so majestic that it is really imposing. To the Chinese its 
height is awe-inspiring, for in all the eighteen provinces there 
is no loftier peak. 

Stopping for the night at the ancient city of Tai-an-fu at the 
base of the mountain, we set out at six the next morning in 
chairs swung between poles borne by stalwart coolies. My 
curiosity was aroused when I found that they were Mohamme- 
dans and, as they cordially responded to my questionings, I 
found them very interesting. Centuries ago, their ancestors 
came to China as mercenaries, and taking Chinese wives set- 
tled in the country. But they have never intermarried since. 
They have adopted the dress and language of the Chinese, but 
otherwise they continue almost as distinct as the Jews in 
America. They instruct their children in the doctrines of 
Islam, though the Mohammedan rule that the Koran must not 
be translated has prevented all but a few literati from obtaining 
any knowledge of the book itself. They have done little 
proselyting, but natural increase, occasional reenforcements 
and the adoption of famine children have gradually swelled 
their ranks until they now number many millions in various 

65 



66 New Forces in Old China 

parts of China. In some provinces they are very strong, par- 
ticularly in Yun-nan and Kan-su where they are said to form a 
majority of the population. They are notorious for turbulence 
and are popularly known as "Mohammedan thieves." It 
must be admitted that they not infrequently justify their repu- 
tation for robbery, murder and counterfeiting. More than 
once they have fomented bloody revolutions, one of them, the 
great Panthay rebellion of 185 5-1 8 74, costing the lives of no 
less than two million Moslems before it was suppressed. 

But those who bore me up the long slope of Tai-shan were 
as good-natured as they were muscular. There is no difficulty 
about ascending the mountain, for a stone-paved path about 
ten feet wide runs from base to summit. The maker of this 
road is unknown as the earliest records and monuments refer 
only to repairs. But he builded well and evidently with " an 
unlimited command of naked human strength," for the blocks 
of stone are heavy and the masonry of the walls and bridges is 
still massive. 

As the slope becomes steeper, the path merges into long 
flights of solid stone steps. Near the summit, these steps 
become so precipitous that the traveller is apt to feel a little 
dizzy, especially in descending, for the chair coolies race down 
the steep stairway in a way that suggests alarming possibilities 
in the event of a misstep or a broken rope. But the men are 
sure-footed and mishaps seldom occur. The path is bordered 
by a low wall and lined with noble old trees. Ancient temples, 
quaint hamlets, numerous tea-houses and a few nunneries with 
vicious women are scattered along the route. A beautiful 
stream tumbles noisily down the mountainside close at hand, 
alternating swift rapids and deep, quiet pools, while as the 
traveller rises, he gains magnificent vistas of the adjacent moun- 
tains and the wide cultivated plain, yellow with ripening wheat, 
green with growing millet, and thickly dotted with the groves 
beneath which cluster the low houses of the villages. 

Up this long, steep pathway to the Buddhist temples on the 



At the Grave of Confucius 67 

summit, multitudes of Chinese pilgrims toil each year, firmly 
believing that the journey will bring them merit. We reflected 
with a feeling of awe that 

" The path by which we ascended has been trodden by the feet of men for 
more than four thousand years. One hundred and fifty generations have 
come and gone since the great Shun here offered up his yearly sacrifice to 
heaven. Fifteen hundred years before the bard of Greece composed his 
Epic, nearly one thousand years before Moses stood on Pisgah's mount 
and gazed over into the promised land, far back through the centuries 
when the world was young and humanity yet in its cradle, did the chil- 
dren of men ascend the vast shaggy sides of this same mountain, probably 
by this same path, and always to worship." i 

After a night at Hsia-chang, we resumed our journey a little 
after daylight. The early morning air was delightfully cool 
and bracing, but the sun's rays became fierce as we entered the 
dry, sandy bed of the Wen River. By the time we reached the 
broad, shallow stream itself, I envied the two mules and the 
donkey that managed to fall into a hole, though I would have 
been happier if they had been thoughtful enough to discard my 
spare clothes and my food box before they tumbled into the 
muddy water. The whole day was unusually hot so that by 
the time we reached Ning-yang, we were ready for a night's 
rest which even fighting mules, vicious vermin, and quarrelling 
Chinese gamblers in the inn courtyard could not entirely 
destroy. 

As we approached Chining-chou, the country became almost 
perfectly flat, a vast prairie. It was carefully cultivated every- 
where, the kao-liang and poppy predominating. The soil was 
apparently rich, and the landscape was relieved from monotony 
by the green of the cultivated fields and the foliage of the vil- 
lage trees. Dominating all is the rather imposing walled city 
of Chining-chou. The high, strong wall, the handsome gates 
and towers, the trees bordering the little stream and the 
crowded streets looked quite metropolitan. With its imme- 
* The Rev. Dr. Paul D. Bergen, pamphlet. 



68 New Forces in Old China 

diate suburbs built Chinese fashion close to the wall, Chining- 
chou has 150,000 inhabitants. It is a business city with a 
considerable trade, the produce of a wide adjacent region 
being brought to it for shipment, as it is on the Grand Canal 
which gives easy and cheap facilities for exporting and import- 
ing freight. There is, moreover, no loss in exchange as the 
danger of shipping bullion silver makes the Chining business 
men eager to accept drafts for use in paying for the goods they 
buy in Shanghai. Consequently there is a better price for 
silver here than anywhere else in Shantung. The main street 
is narrow, shaded by matting laid on kao-liang stalks and 
lined with busy shops. Along the Grand Canal, there is a 
veritable *' Vanity Fair " filled with clothing booths and deafen- 
ing with the cries of itinerant vendors. 

But the loneliness of the missionary in Chining-chou is 
great, for he is far from congenial companionship. The trage- 
dies of life are particularly heavy at such an isolated post. 
Mr. Laughlin showed me the house where his wife's body lay 
for a month after her death in May, 1899. Then, with his 
nine-year old daughter, he took the body in a house-boat down 
the Grand Canal to Chin-kiang, a journey of sixteen days. 
What a heart-breaking journey it must have been as the clumsy 
boat crept slowly along the sluggish canal and the silent stars 
looked down on the lonely husband beside the coffin of his be- 
loved wife. Yet he bravely returned to Chining-chou and 
while I travelled on, he remained with only Dr. Lyon for a 
companion. I was sorry to part with them for we had shared 
many long-to-be-remembered experiences, while at that time 
there was believed to be no small risk in remaining at such an 
isolated post. But Dr. Johnson and I had to go, and so early 
on the morning of June 17, we bade the brave fellows an affec- 
tionate good-bye and left them in that far interior city, standing 
at the East Gate till we were out of sight. 

Fortunately, the day was fine for rain would have made the 
flat, black soil almost impassible. But as it was, we had a 



At the Grave of Confucius 69 

comfortable, dustless ride of sixty li to Yen-chou-fu, a city of 
unusually massive walls, whose 60,000 people are reputed to be 
the most fiercely anti-foreign in Shantung. Comparatively few 
foreigners had been seen in this region and many of them had 
been mobbed. The Roman Catholic priests, who are the only 
missionaries here, have repeatedly been attacked, while an Eng- 
lish traveller was also savagely assaulted by these turbulent con- 
servatives. But the Roman Catholics with characteristic de- 
termination fought it out, the German minister coming from 
Peking to support them, and at the time of my visit, they were 
building a splendid church, the money like that for the Chin- 
ing-chou cathedral, coming from the indemnity for the murder 
of the two priests in 1897, which was in this diocese. Though 
great crowds stared silently at us, no disrespect was shown. 
On the contrary, we found that by order of the district magis- 
trate an inn had been specially prepared for us, with a plentiful 
supply of rugs and cushions and screens, while a few minutes 
after our arrival, the magistrate sent with his compliments a 
feast of twenty-five dishes. Another stage of nine miles 
brought us at four o'clock to the famous holy city of China, 
Ku-fu, the home and the grave of Confucius. 

Leaving our shendzas at an inn, we mounted the cavalry 
horses of our escort and hurried to the celebrated temple which 
stands on the site of Confucius' house. But to our keen dis- 
appointment, the massive gates were closed. The keeper, in 
response to our knocks, peered through a crevice, and ex- 
plained that it was the great feast of the fifth day of the fifth 
month, that the Duke was offering sacrifices, and that no one, 
not even officials, could enter till the sacrifices were completed. 
<'When will that be?" we queried. "They will continue all 
night and all day to-morrow," was the reply. We urged the 
shortness of our stay and solemnly promised to keep out of the 
Duke's way. The keeper's eyes watered as he imagined a 
present, but he replied that he did not dare let us in as his 
orders were strict and disobedience might cost him his position 



70 New Forces in Old China 

if not his life. So we sorrowfully turned away, and pushing 
through the dense throng which had swiftly assembled at the 
sight of a foreigner, we rode through the city and along the far- 
famed Spirit Road to the Most Holy Grove in which lies the 
body of Confucius. It is three li, about a mile, from the city 
gate. The road is shaded by ancient cedars and is called the 
Spirit Road because the spirit of Confucius is believed to walk 
back and forth upon it by night. 

The famous cemetery is in three parts. The outer is said to 
be fifteen miles in circumference and is the burial-place of all 
who bear the honoured name of Confucius. Within, there is 
a smaller enclosure of about ten acres, which is the family burial 
place of the dukes who are lineal descendants of Confucius, 
mighty men who rank with the proudest governors of provinces. 
Within this second enclosure, is the Most Holy Cemetery itself, 
a plot of about two acres, shaded like the others by fine old 
cedars and cypresses. Here are only three graves, marked by 
huge mounds under which lie the dust of Confucius, his son 
and his grandson. That of the Sage, we estimated to be 
twenty-five feet high and 250 feet in circumference. In front 
of it is a stone monument about fifteen feet high, four feet wide 
and sixteen inches thick. Lying prone before that is another 
stone of nearly the same size supported by a heavy stone 
pedestal. There is no name, but on the upright monument are 
Chinese characters which Dr. Charles Johnson, my travelling 
companion, translated : " The Acme of Perfection and Learn- 
ing-Promoting King," or more freely — "The Most Illustrious 
Sage and Princely Teacher." 

Uncut grass and weeds grew rankly upon the mounds and all 
over the cemetery, giving everything an unkempt appearance. 
One species is said to grow nowhere else in China and to have 
such magical power in interpreting truth that if a leaf is laid 
upon an abstruse passage of Confucius, the meaning will im- 
mediately become clear. There are several small buildings in 
the enclosure, but dust and decay reign in all, for there is no 




CLIMBING TAI-SHAN, THE SACRED MOUNTAIN 




THE GRAVE OF CONFUCIUS 



At the Grave of Confucius 71 

merit in repairing a building that some one else has erected. 
As with his house, the Chinese will spend money freely to build 
a temple, but after that he does nothing. So even in the most 
sacred places, arches and walls and columns are usually crumb- 
ling, grounds are dirty and pavement stones out of place. 

A feeling of awe came over me as I remembered that, with the 
possible exception of Buddha, the man whose dust lay before 
me had probably influenced more human beings than any other 
man whom the world has seen. Even Christ Himself has thus 
far not been known to so many people as Confucius, nor has 
any nation in which Christ is known so thoroughly accepted 
His teachings as China has accepted those of Confucius. Dr. 
Legge indeed declares that "after long study of his character 
and opinions, I am unable to regard him as a great man," 
while Dr. Gibson " seeks in vain in his recorded life and words 
for the secret of his power," and can only conjecture in ex- 
planation that "he is for all time the typical Chinaman; but 
his greatness lies in his displaying the type on a grand scale, 
not in creating it." But it is difficult even for the non-Chinese 
mind to look at such a man with unbiassed eyes. Surely we 
need not begrudge the meed of greatness to one who has 
moulded so many hundreds of millions of human beings for 
2,400 years and who is more influential at the end of that pe- 
riod than at its beginning. Grant that "he is for all time the 
typical Chinaman." Could a small man have incarnated "for 
all time" the spirit of one-third of the human race? All over 
China the evidences of Confucius' power can be seen. Tem- 
ples rise on every hand. Ancestral tablets adorn every house. 
The writings of the sage are diligently studied by the whole 
population. When, centuries ago, a jealous Emperor ruth- 
lessly burned the Confucian books, patient scholars reproduced 
them, and to prevent a recurrence of such iconoclastic fury, the 
Great Confucian Temple and the Hall of Classics in Peking 
were erected and the books were inscribed on long rows of stone 
monuments so that they could never be destroyed again. As a 



72 New Forces in Old China 

token of the present attitude of the Imperial family, the Em- 
peror once in a decade proceeds in solemn state to this temple 
and enthroned there expounds a passage of the sacred writings. 
For more than two millenniums, the boys of the most numerous 
people in the world have committed to memory the Confucian 
primer which declares that ''affection between father and son, 
concord between husband and wife, kindness on the part of the 
elder brother and deference on the part of the younger, order 
between seniors and juniors, sincerity between friends and as- 
sociates, respect on the part of the ruler and loyalty on that of 
the minister — these are the ten righteous courses equally bind- 
ing on all men; " that "the five regular constituents of our 
moral nature are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, knowl- 
edge, and truth; " and that " the five blessings are long life, 
wealth, tranquillity, desire for virtue and a natural death." 

Surely these are noble principles. That their influence has 
been beneficial in many respects, it would be folly to deny. 
They have lifted the Chinese above the level of many other 
Asiatic nations by creating a more stable social order, by incul- 
cating respect for parents and rulers, and by so honouring the 
mother that woman has a higher position in China than in most 
other non-Christian lands. 

And yet Confucianism has been and is the most formidable 
obstacle to the regeneration of China. While it teaches some 
great truths, it ignores others that are vital. It has lifted the 
Chinese above the level of barbarism only to fix them almost 
immovably upon a plane considerably lower than Christianity. 
It has developed such a smug satisfaction with existing condi- 
tions that millions are well-nigh impervious to the influences 
of the modern world. It has debased respect for parents into 
a blind worship of ancestors so that a dead father, who may 
have been an ignorant and vicious man, takes the place of the 
living and righteous God. It has fostered not only premature 
marriages but concubinage in the anxiety to have sons who 
will care for parents in age and minister to them after death. 



At the Grave of Confucius 73 

It makes the child virtually a slave to the caprice or passion of 
the parent. It leads to a reverence for the past that makes 
change a disrespect to the dead, so that all progress is made 
exceedingly difficult and society becomes fossilized. " What- 
ever is is right " and " custom " is sacred. Man is led so to 
centralize his thought on his own family that he becomes selfish 
and provincial in spirit and conduct, with no outlook beyond 
his own narrow sphere. Expenditures which the poor can ill- 
afford are remorselessly exacted for the maintenance of ancestral 
worship so that the living are often impoverished for the sake 
of the dead. 1151,752,000 annually, ancestral worship is said 
to cost — a heavy drain upon a people the majority of whom 
spend their lives in the most abject poverty, while the develop- 
ment of true patriotism and a strong and well-governed State has 
been effectively prevented by making the individual solicitous 
only for his own family and callously indifferent to the welfare 
of his country. Confucianism therefore is China's weakness 
as well as China's strength, the foe of all progress, the stagna- 
tion of all life. 

Confucianism, too, halts on the threshold of life's profound- 
est problems. It has only dead maxims for the hour of deepest 
need. It gives no vision of a future beyond the grave. It is 
virtually an agnostic code of morals with some racial varia- 
tions. Wu Ting Fang, formerly Chinese Minister to the 
United States, frankly declares that " Confucianism is not a re- 
ligion in the practical sense of the word," and that "Confu- 
cius would be called an agnostic in these days." To "the 
Venerable Teacher " himself, philosophy opened no door of 
hope. Asked about this one day by a troubled inquirer, he 
dismissed the question with the characteristic aphorism — "Im- 
perfectly acquainted with life, how can we know death?" 
And there the myriad millions of Confucianists have dully 
stood ever since, their faces towards the dead past, the future 
a darkness out of which no voice comes. 

But just because their illustrious guide took them to the 



74 New Forces in Old China 

verge of the dark unknown and left them there, other teachers 
came in to occupy the region left so invitingly open. Less 
rational than Confucius, their success showed anew that the 
human mind cannot rest in a spiritual vacuum and that if 
faith does not enter, superstition will. Taoism and Buddhism 
proceeded to people the air and the future with strange and 
awful shapes. Popular Chinese belief as to the future is grew- 
somely illustrated in the Temple of Horrors in Canton with its 
formidable collection of wooden figures illustrating the various 
modes of punishment — sawing, decapitation, boiling in oil, 
covering with a hot bell, etc. At funerals, bits of perforated 
paper are freely scattered about in the hope that the inquisitive 
spirits will stop to examine them and thus give the body a 
chance to pass. In any Chinese cemetery, one may see little 
tables in front of the graves covered with tea, sweetmeats and 
sheets of gilt and silver paper, so that if a spirit is hungry, 
thirsty or in need of funds, it can get drink, food or money 
from the gold or silver mines (paper). 

In the Temple for Sickness, in Canton, where multitudes of 
sufferers pray to the gods for healing, we saw an old woman 
kneeling before a statue of Buddha, holding aloft two blocks of 
wood and then throwing them to the floor. If the flat side of 
one and the oval side of the other were uppermost, the omen 
was good, but if the same sides were up, it was bad. Others 
shook a box of numbered sticks till one popped out and then 
a paper bearing the corresponding number gave the issue of the 
disease. The stones of the court were worn by many feet and 
the pathos of the place was pitiful. 

Theoretically, "Confucianism is a system of morals, Taoism 
a deification of nature and Buddhism a system of metaphysics. 
But in practice all three have undergone many modifications. 
. . . With every age the character of Taoism has changed. 
The philosophy of its founder is now only an antiquarian curi- 
osity. Modern Taoism is of such a motley character as almost 
to defy any attempt to educe a well-ordered system from its 



At the Grave of Confucius 75 

chaos." ^ As for Buddhism, its founder would not recognize 
it, if he could visit China to-day. The lines : — 

" Ten Buddhist nuns, and nine are bad ; 
The odd one left is doubtless mad " 

are suggestive of the depth to which the religion of Guatama 
has fallen. 

Indeed, it would be a mistake to suppose that the Chinese 
people are divided into three religious bodies as, for example, 
Americans are divided into Protestants, Roman Catholics and 
Jews. Each individual Chinese is at the same time a Con- 
fucian, a Buddhist and a Taoist, observing the ceremonies of 
all three faiths as circumstances may require, a Confucian 
when he worships his ancestors, a Buddhist when he implores 
the aid of the Goddess of Mercy, and a Taoist when he seeks 
to propitiate the omnipresent fung-shuy (spirits of wind and 
water), and he has no more thought of inconsistency than an 
American who is at the same time a Methodist, a Republican 
and a Mason. Dr. S. H. Chester says that when he was in 
Shanghai, he saw a Taoist priest conducting Confucian worship 
in a Buddhist temple. Even if inconsistency were proved to 
the Chinese, he would not be in the least disturbed for he cares 
nothing for such considerations. " Hence it is that the Chi- 
nese religion of to-day has become an inextricable blending of 
the three systems." * " The ancient simplicity of the state re- 
ligion has been so far corrupted as to combine in one ritual 
gods, ghosts, flags and cannon. It has become at once essen- 
tially polytheistic and pantheistic." * 

The result is that the average Chinese lives a life of terror 
under the sway of imaginary demons. He erects a rectangular 
pillar in front of his door so that the dreaded spirits cannot 
enter his house without making an impossible turn. He gives 

1 Smith, "Rex Christus," pp. 62, 72. 

' Gibson, " Mission Methods and Mission Policy in South China." 

'Williams, " Middle Kingdom." 



^6 New Forces in Old China 

his tiled roof an upward slant at each of the eaves so that any 
spirit attempting to descend will be shunted off into space. 
Nor is this superstition confined to the lower classes. The 
haughty, foreign-travelled Li Hung Chang abjectly grovelled 
on the bank of the Yellow River to propitiate an alleged demon 
that was believed to be the cause of a disastrous flood, and as 
late as June 4, 1903, the North- China Daily News pubhshed 
the following imperial decree : 

*• Owing to the continued drought, in spite of our prayers for rain, we 
hereby command Chen Pih, Governor of Peking, to proceed to the Dragon 
temple at Kanshan-hsien, Chih-li Province, and bring from thence to 
Peking an iron tablet possessing rain-producing virtues, which we will 
place up for adoration and thereby bring forth the much-desired rain." 

And so the followers of the most " rational " of teachers are 
among the most superstitious people in the world. In attempt- 
ing to clear the mind of error, the great agnostic simply left it 
" empty, swept and garnished for seven other spirits worse than 
the first." 

As in the deepening twilight we thoughtfully left the last 
resting-place of the mighty dead, a platoon of thirty Chinese 
soldiers approached, drew their swords, dropped upon one 
knee and shouted. The movement was so unexpected and the 
shout so startlingly strident that my horse shied in terror and I 
had visions of immediate massacre. But having learned that 
politeness is current coin the world over, as soon as I could 
control my prancing horse, I raised my hat and bowed. 
Whereupon the soldiers rose, wheeled into line and marched 
ahead of us to our inn in the city. Dr. Johnson explained that 
the words shouted in unison were : " May the Great Man have 
Peace," and that the platoon was an escort of honour from the 
yamen of the district magistrate ! 

On the way, we stopped to visit the temple of Yen, the 
famous disciple of Confucius who mourned for his master six 
years. The grounds are spacious. There is a remarkably fine 
tree, tall, graceful and with silvery white bark. A huge stone 



At the Grave of Confucius 77 

turtle was reverently kissed by one of our escort, who fondly 
believed that he who kissed the turtle's mouth would never be 
ill. But as usual in China, the temple itself, though originally 
it must have been beautiful, is now crumbling in decay. 

It was late when we returned, and as we were about to retire, 
wearied with the toils of the day, the district magistrate called 
with an imposing retinue and cordially inquired whether we 
had seen all that we wished to see. When we replied that we 
had been unable to enter the great temple, he graciously said 
that he would have pleasure in informing the Duke, who would 
be sure to arrange for our visit. The result was a message at 
two o'clock in the morning to the effect that we might visit the 
temple at daylight in the interval between the cessation of the 
sacrifices of the night and their resumption at seven o'clock in 
the morning. Accordingly we rose at three o'clock, and after 
a hurried breakfast by candle-light, we proceeded to the temple. 
About a hundred Chinese were awaiting us, among them two 
men in official dress. We did not deem it courteous to ask 
who or what they were, but we supposed them to be from the 
magistrate's yamen, and as they were evidently familiar with 
the temple, we gladly complied with their cordial invitation to 
follow them. 

I wish I had power to describe adequately all we saw in that 
vast enclosure of about thirty acres, with its stately trees, its 
paved avenues, its massive monuments, and, above all, its 
imposing temple and scores of related buildings. One was the 
Lieh Kew Kwei Chang Tien, the Temple of the Wall of the 
Many Countries. Here are 1 20 tablets, each about sixteen by 
twenty-two inches, and in the centre three larger ones measur- 
ing two feet in width by four and a-half feet in height. In 
front of these is a stone three and a-half feet by four and a-half, 
and bearing the inscription : " Tribute from the Ten Thousand 
Countries of the World." The Chinese solemnly believe that 
in these tablets all the nations of the earth have acknowledged 
the preeminence of Confucius. 



yS New Forces in Old China 

Then we visited three gloomy buildings where the animals for 
sacrifice are killed — one for cattle, one for sheep and one for 
pigs. Beyond them, we entered temples to the wife of Con- 
fucius, to his parents and to the "Five Generations of 
Ancestors," though the last-mentioned contains tablets to nine 
generations instead of five. On every side are scores of monu- 
ments, erected by or in honour of famous kings, some of them 
by the monarchs of dynasties which flourished before the Chris- 
tian era. 

Most notable of all is the great temple of the sage himself, 
standing well back on a spacious stone-paved terrace, around 
which runs a handsome marble balustrade. The eye is at once 
arrested by the twenty-eight noble marble pillars, ten in front, 
ten in the rear and four at each end. The ten in front are 
round and elaborately carved, as magnificent a series of columns 
as I ever saw. The others are smooth, octagonal pillars, but 
traced with various designs in black. 

Within, there are twelve other columns about four feet in 
diameter and twenty-five feet high, each cut from a single tree 
and beautifully polished. Naturally, the central object of 
interest is a figure of Confucius of heroic size but impossible 
features. In front is the tablet with costly lacquered orna- 
ments and pedestals, and an altar on which were a bullock and 
two pigs, each carefully scraped and dressed and lying with 
heads towards the statue and tablet. In several other temples, 
notably in the one to the Five Generations of Ancestors, other 
animals were lying, some evidently offered the day before and 
others awaiting the worship of the day now beginning. 
Altogether I counted nineteen sacrificial animals — one bullock, 
eight sheep and ten pigs. The great temple is of noble pro- 
portions, with an overhanging roof of enormous size but con- 
structed on such graceful lines as to be exquisitely beautiful. 
But within dust reigns, while without as usual the grass and 
weeds grow unchecked. 

Last of all we visited the library, though the name is a 



At the Grave of Confucius 79 

misnomer, for there are no books in it and our courteous guides 
said there never had been. We ascended the narrow stairs 
leading from the vast, empty, dusty room on the lower floor 
through an equally empty second story to the third and top- 
most story, which is the home of hundreds of doves. Going 
out on the narrow balustrade under the eaves in the gray dawn 
of the morning, I looked upon the gorgeous gilded roof of the 
temple near by and then down upon the many ancient build- 
ings, the darkly solemn pines, the massive monuments resting 
on ponderous stone turtles, and the group of Chinese standing 
among the shadows and with faces turned curiously upward. 
Suddenly a dove flew over my head and then the sun rose 
slowly and majestically above the sombre tree-tops, throwing 
splendid floods of light upon us who stood aloft. But the 
Chinese below were in the sombre shades of a night that for 
them had not yet fully ended. I would fain believe that the 
physical was a parable of the spiritual. All the maxims of the 
Acme of Perfection and Learning-Promoting King have not 
brought the Chinese out of moral twilight. After all these 
centuries of ceaseless toil, they still remain amid the mists and 
shadows. But their faces are beginning to turn towards the 
light of a day whose sun already touches the mountain-tops. 
Some even now are in that " marvellous light," and it cannot 
be long before shining hosts of God shall pour down the 
mountainsides, chasing on noiseless feet and across wide plains 
the swiftly retreating night " until the day dawn and the 
shadows flee away." 

At the outer gate, we bade good-bye to the dignified officials 
who had so hospitably conducted us through this venerable and 
historic place and who had taken such kindly pains to explain 
its ancient relics and customs. Who were they ? we secretly 
wondered. Imagine our feelings when the lieutenant in com- 
mand of our escort afterwards informed us that they were the 
guardian of the temple and the Duke himself ! 

Leaving the city of the mighty dead, we journeyed through 



8o New Forces in Old China 

a lovely region guarded by distant mountains. At the walled 
city of Si-sui, sixty li distant, soldiers met us and apparently 
the whole population lined the streets as we rode to our inn, 
where the yamen secretary was awaiting us with a feast. 
This inn, too, had been specially cleaned, and there were 
cushions, red cloths for the seats, and a screen for the door. 
In the afternoon, the country became rougher. But while the 
soil was thinner, the scenery was finer, an undulating region 
traversed by a shining river and bounded by mountains 
which gradually drew nearer. One hundred and ten li from 
Ku-fu, we stopped for the night at Pien-kiao, a small city with 
an unusually poor inn but a magnificent spring. It gushed up 
over an area twenty-five feet square and with such volume that 
the stream ran away like a mill-race. The Emperor Kien Lung 
built a retaining wall about the spring and a temple and summer- 
house adjoining. The wall is as solid as ever, but only a 
few crumbling pillars and fragments remain of the temple and 
pavilion. The Emperor affirmed that he was told in a vision 
that if he would build a stone boat, the waters of the spring 
would float it to Nanking whither he wished to go. So he 
built the boat of heavy cut stone, with a twelve-foot beam and 
a length of fifty-five feet. It is still there with the prow five 
feet above the ground, but the rest of the boat has sunk almost 
to the level of the earth about it. Is the old Emperor's idea any 
more absurd to us than our iron boats would have been to him ? 
The sun struggled long with heavy mists the following morn- 
ing and the air was so cool that I had to wrap myself in a 
blanket in the shendza. By eight, the sun gained the victory 
and we had another breezy, perfect June day. But the road 
was stony and trying beyond anything we had yet seen. The 
villages were evidently poorer, as might be expected on such a 
rocky soil. The people stared silently and did not so often re- 
turn my smiles. Whether they were sullen or simply boorish 
and unaccustomed to foreigners I could only conjecture. Few 
white men had been seen there. 



At the Grave of Confucius 8l 

A hard day's journey of 140 li through a rocky region 
brought us to Fei-hsien. Rain was falling the next morning 
and the Chinese muleteers do not like to travel in rain. But 
the prospect was for a steady pour and as we were in a wretched 
inn and only ninety li from Ichou-fu, we wanted to go on. 
A present of 600 small cash for each muleteer (twenty 
cents) overcame all scruples. Just as I had comfortably 
ensconced myself in my shendza with an oilcloth on top and a 
rubber blanket in front, I saw a centipede on my leg, but I 
managed to slay him before he bit me. By nine, the rain 
ceased and though the clouds still threatened, we had a cool 
and comfortable ride through hundreds of fields of peanuts, 
indigo and millet to I-tang, where we stopped for tiffin at a 
squalid inn kept by a tall, dilapidated looking Chinese, who re- 
joiced in the name of Confucius. He was really a descendant 
of the sage and was very proud of the fact that his bones were 
in due time to rest in the sacred cemetery at Ku-fu. 

By 5:40 p. M. we reached Ichou-fu, where the solitary Rev. 
W. W. Faris was glad to see another white man. A 
stay of several days was marked by many pleasant incidents. 
There was much of interest for a visitor to see. The mission 
work at Ichou-fu, Presbyterian, includes two hospitals, one for 
men and one for women, a chapel and separate day schools for 
boys and girls. The church has about a hundred members 
and in the outstations there are ten other organized churches 
besides ten unorganized congregations. All these churches 
and congregations provide their own chapels and pay their own 
running expenses. Here also the officials were most courteous. 
The Prefect, who promptly called with a retinue of fifty 
soldiers and attendants, was a masterful looking man who 
conversed with intelligence on a wide variety of topics. The 
day before our departure, we gave a feast to the leading men 
of the city in return for their many courtesies. Every invita- 
tion was accepted and thirty-five guests were present. They 
remained till late and were apparently highly pleased. 



82 New Forces in Old China 

Late in the evening, a youth who had painfully walked i8o 
li, came to Dr. Johnson's dispensary and presented the follow- 
ing note of introduction : 

"Our office a servant who getting a yellow sick, which 
suffered a few year and cured for nothing, he trusted me to 
beg you to save his sick and I now ordered him to going be- 
fore you to beg you remedy facely. With many thanks to you, 

" Yours sincerely, 

"V. T. Gee." 

Having done all that was possible in so short a time to 
"save his sick," we resumed our journey, thirty Chinese 
Christians accompanying us to the River I, a li from the city. 
The atmosphere was gloriously clear and on the second day 
out, crossing some high ridges, we had superb views of wide 
cultivated valleys, and of Ku-chou, a famous city that is said 
to contain more literary graduates than any other city of its 
size in the province. 

Then followed a more level country with interminable fields 
of kao-liang and many orchards of walnuts, pears and cherries, 
while low mountains rose in the background. Men and horses 
were tired after our long and hard journey, and the mules' 
backs were becoming very sore. But the end drew near and 
the fifth day from Ichow-fu we reached Yueh-kou, the border 
of the German hinterland. The German line is near Kiao- 
chou, but the rule is that Chinese soldiers must not come be- 
yond this point, loo li from the line, and that German 
soldiers shall not cross it going the other way except on the line 
of the railroad. Here therefore our escort had to leave us, as 
Chinese and Germans have agreed that any armed men cross- 
ing the line may be fired on, and even if there should be no 
casualty, both the German and Chinese authorities might justly 
have protested if Americans violated the compact. I suggested 
going on without an escort to our proposed night stop thirty 
li further. But my more experienced companions thought it 
dangerous to spend the night alone at an inn within this belt, 



At the Grave of Confucius 83 

as the villagers near the line were as bitter against foreigners 
as any in the province, the German brusqueness and ruth- 
lessness having greatly exasperated them. 

So we spent the night at Yueh-kou. No one interfered with 
us the next day and by getting an early start, we covered ninety 
long li to Kiao-chou by noon. After five weeks in a mule 
litter, it seemed wonderful to make 138 li in three hours in a 
railway car. By 6:50 p. M., we reached Tsing-tau, having, 
the missionaries said, succeeded in "hustling the East to a 
remarkable degree." My note-book reads — ''A bath, clean 
clothes, a hot supper and a good night's sleep removed the 
last vestige of weariness. " 



VII 

SOME EXPERIENCES OF A TRAVELLER— FEASTS, 
INNS AND SOLDIERS 

THE hardships of interior travelHng were less than I 
had supposed. It is true that there were many ex- 
periences which, if enumerated, would make a for- 
midable list. But each as it arose appeared insignificant. As a 
whole, the trip was as enjoyable as any vacation tour. The 
weather was as a rule fine. The sun was often hot in the 
middle of the day, but cool breezes usually tempered the heat 
of the afternoon, while the nights required the protection of 
blankets. There was some rain at times, but not enough to 
impede seriously our progress. It was altogether the most 
perfect May and June weather I have ever seen. Nor was it 
exceptional, according to Dr. Charles Johnson who has spent 
many years in North China. But of course I saw Shantung 
at its most favourable period. July and August are wet and 
hot, while the winters are clear and cold. 

I found a trunk an unmitigated nuisance. Though it was 
made to order for a pack-mule, no pack-mules could be hired in 
that harvest season, and the trunk was too heavy for one side 
of a donkey, even after transferring all practicable articles to 
the shendza. So it had to be put in a cart, and as a cart can- 
not keep up with a shendza, I was often separated from my 
trunk for days at a time. Besides, a couple valises would have 
held all necessary clothing anyway. I took a light folding cot 
and a bag held a thin mattress, small pillow, sheets and two 
light blankets, so that I had a very comfortable bed under the 
always necessary mosquito net. 

84 



Some Experiences of a Traveller 85 

We also took a supply of tinned food to which we could 
usually add by purchase en route chickens and eggs, while oc- 
casionally in the proper season, we could secure string-beans, 
onions, cucumbers, apricots, peanuts, walnuts and radishes. 
So we fared well. The native food cannot be wisely depended 
upon by a foreigner. He cannot maintain his strength, as the 
poorer Chinese do, on a diet of rice and unleavened bread, 
while the food of the well-to-do classes, when it can be had, is 
apt to be so greasy and peculiar as to incite his digestive ap- 
paratus to revolt. Indeed, a Chinese feast is one of his most 
serious experiences. Most heartily, indeed, did I appreciate 
the kindly motives of the magistrates who invited me to these 
feasts, for their purpose was as generously hospitable as the 
purpose of any American who invites a visitor to dinner. But 
the Chinese bill-of-fare includes dishes that are rather trying to 
a Christian palate, and good form requires the guest to taste at 
least each dish, for if he fails to do so, he makes his host 
"lose face" — a serious breach of etiquette in China. For 
example, here is the menu of a typical Chinese feast to which 
I was invited, the dishes being served in the order given, 
sweets coming first and soup towards the last in this land of 
topsy-turveydora : 

1. Small cakes (five kinds), sliced pears, candied peanuts, 
raw water-chestnuts, cooked water-chestnuts, hard-boiled ducks' 
eggs (cut into small pieces), candied walnuts, honied walnuts, 
shredded chicken, apricot seeds, sliced pickled plums, sliced 
dried smoked ham (cut into tiny pieces), shredded sea moss, 
watermelon seeds, shrimps, bamboo sprouts, jellied haws. All 
the above dishes were cold. Then followed hot : 

2. Shrimps served in the shell with vinegar, sea-slugs with 
shredded chicken, bits of sweetened pork and shredded dough 
— the pork and sea-slugs being cooked and served in fragrant 
oil. 

3. Bamboo sprouts, stewed chicken kidneys. 

4. Spring chicken cooked crisp in oil. 



86 New Forces in Old China 

5. Stewed sea-slugs with ginger root and bean curd, 
stewed fungus with reed roots and ginger tops (all hot). 

6. Tarts with candied jelly, sugar dumplings with dates. 

7. Hot pudding made of " the eight precious vegetables," 
consisting of dates, watermelon seeds, chopped walnuts, chopped 
chestnuts, preserved oranges, lotus seeds, and two kinds of rice, 
all mixed and served in syrup — a delicious dish. 

8. Shelled shrimps with roots of reeds and bits of hard- 
boiled eggs, all in one bowl with fragrant oil, biscuits coated 
with sweet seeds. 

9. Glutinous rice in little layers with browned sugar be- 
tween, minced pork dumplings, steamed biscuits. 

10. Omelette with sea-slugs and bamboo sprouts, all in oil, 
bits of chicken stewed in oil, pork with small dumplings of 
flour and starch. 

11. Stewed pigs' kidneys, shrimps stewed in oil, date pie. 

12. Vermicelli and egg soup. 

13. Stewed pork balls, reed roots, bits of hard-boiled yolks 
of eggs, all in oil. 

14. Birds' nest soup. 

The appetite being pretty well sated by this time, the fol- 
lowing delicacies were served to taper off with : 

15. Chicken boiled in oil, pork swimming in a great bowl 
of its own fat, stewed fish stomachs, egg soup. 

16. Steamed biscuit. 

Tea was served from the beginning and throughout the feast. 
It was made on the table by pouring hot water into a small pot 
half full of tea leaves, the pot being refilled as needed. The 
tea was served without cream or sugar, and was mild and de- 
licious. Rice whiskey in tiny cups is usually served at feasts, 
though it was often omitted from the feasts given to us. The 
Chinese assert that the alcohol is necessary " to cut the grease." 
There is certainly enough grease to cut. 

The guests sit at small round tables, each accommodating 
about four. There are, of course, no plates or knives or forks 



Some Experiences of a Traveller 87 

though small china spoons are used for the soups. All the 
food is cut into small pieces before being brought to the table, 
so that no further cutting is supposed to be necessary. Each 
article of food is brought on in a single dish, which is placed 
in the centre of the table, and then each guest helps himself 
out of the common dish with his chop-sticks, the same chop- 
sticks being used during the entire meal. It is considered a 
mark of distinguished courtesy for the host to fish around in 
the dish with his own chop-sticks for a choice morsel and place 
it in front of the guest. With profound emotion, at almost 
every feast that I attended in China, I saw my considerate 
hosts take the chop-sticks which had made many trips to their 
own mouths, stir around in the central dish for a particularly fine 
titbit and deposit it on the table before me. And of course, 
not to be outdone in politeness, I ate these dainty morsels with 
smiles of gratified pride. As each of the Chinese at the table 
deemed himself my host, and as the Chinese are extremely 
polite and attentive to their guests, the table soon became wet 
and greasy from the pieces of pork, slugs and chicken placed 
upon it as well as from the drippings from the chop-sticks in 
their constant trips from the serving bowls. 

However, two small brass bowls, fitting together, are placed 
beside each guest, who is expected to sip a little water from the 
upper one, rinse his mouth with it and expectorate it into the 
lower one. The emotion of the foreign visitor is intensified 
when he learns that it is counted polite to make all the noise 
possible by smacking the lips as a sign that the food is de- 
licious, sucking the tea or soup noisily from the spoon to show 
that it is hot, and belching to show that it is enjoyed. Often, 
a dignified official would let his tea stand until it was cold, but 
when he took it up, he would suck it with a loud noise as if it 
were scalding hot, as he was too polite to act as if it were cold. 

But the American or European, who inwardly groans at a 
Chinese repast and who felicitates himself on the alleged 
superior methods of his own race, may well consider how his 



88 New Forces in Old China 

own customs impress a Celestial. A Chinese gentleman who 
was making a tour of Europe and America wrote to a relative 
in China as follows : 

" You cannot civilize these foreign devils. They are beyond redemp- 
tion. They will live for weeks and months without touching a mouthful 
of rice, but they eat the flesh of bullocks and sheep in enormous quantities. 
That is why they smell so badly ; they smell like sheep themselves. 
Every day they take a bath to rid themselves of their disagreeable odours, 
but they do not succeed. Nor do they eat their meat cooked in small 
pieces. It is carried into the room in large chunks, often half raw, and 
they cut and slash and tear it apart. They eat with knives and prongs. 
It makes a civilized being perfectly nervous. One fancies himself in the 
presence of sword-swallowers. They even sit down at the same table with 
women, and the latter are served first, reversing the order of nature." 

So I humbly adapted myself as best I could to Chinese cus- 
toms and learned to like many of the natives' dishes, though to 
the last, there were some that I merely nibbled to "save the 
face" of mine host. Some of the dishes were really excellent 
and as a rule all were well-cooked, although the oil in which 
much of the food was steeped made it rather greasy. My di- 
gestive apparatus is pretty good, but it would take a copper- 
lined stomach to partake without disaster of a typical Chinese 
feast. But for that matter so it would to eat a traditional New 
England dinner of boiled salt pork, corned beef, cabbage, tur- 
nips, onions and potatoes, followed by a desert of mince pie 
and plum pudding and all washed down by copious draughts 
of hard cider. 

Chinese inns do not impoverish even the economical traveller. 
Our bill for our tiffin stop was usually loo small cash, a little 
more than three cents, for our entire party of about a score of 
men and animals. For the night, the common charge was 700 
cash, twenty-three cents. Travellers are expected to provide 
their own food and bedding and to pay a small extra sum for 
the rice and fodder used by their servants and mules, but even 
then the cost appears ridiculously small to a foreigner. Still, 



Some Experiences of a Traveller 89 

the most thoroughly seasoned traveller can hardly consider a 
Chinese inn a comfortable residence. It is simply a rough, 
one-story building enclosing an open courtyard. The rooms 
are destitute of furniture except occasionally a rude table. The 
floor is the beaten earth, foul with the use of scores and per- 
haps hundreds of years. The windows are covered with oiled 
paper which admits only a dim light and no air at all. The 
walls are begrimed with smoke and covered with cobwebs. 
Across the end of the room is the inevitable kang — a brick plat- 
form under which the cooking fire is built and on which the 
traveller squats by day and sleeps by night. The unhappy 
white man who has not been prudent enough to bring a cot 
with him feels as if he were sleeping on a hot stove with " the 
lid off." 

The inns between Ichou-fu and Chining-chou were the poor- 
est I saw, and if a man has stopped in one of them, he has been 
fairly initiated into the discomforts of travelling in China. But 
wherever one goes, the heat and smoke and bad air, together 
with the vermin which literally swarms on the kang and floor 
and walls, combine to make a night in a Chinese inn an ex- 
perience that is not easily forgotten. However, the foreign 
traveller soon learns, perforce, to be less fastidious than at home 
and I found myself hungry enough to eat heartily and tired 
enough to sleep soundly in spite of the dirt and bugs. But the 
heat and bad air as the summer advanced were not so easily 
mastered, and so I began to sleep in the open courtyard, find- 
ing chattering Chinese and squealing mules less objectionable 
than the foul-smelling, vermin-infested inns, since outside I had 
at least plenty of cool, fresh air. 

There is no privacy in a Chinese inn. The doors, when 
there are any, are innocent of locks and keys, while the Chinese 
guests as well as the innkeeper's family and the people of the 
neighbourhood have an inquisitiveness that is not in the least 
tempered by bashfulness. But nothing was ever stolen, though 
some of our supplies must have been attractive to many of the 



90 New Forces in Old China 

poverty stricken men who crowded about us. On one oc- 
casion, an inn-employee, who was sent to exchange a bank-note 
for cash, did not return. There was much excited jabbering, 
but Mr. Laughhn firmly though kindly held the innkeeper re- 
sponsible and that worthy admitted that he knew who had taken 
the money and refunded it. So all was peace. The inn- 
keeper was probably in collusion with the thief. This was our 
only trouble of the kind, though we slept night after night in 
the public inns with all our goods lying about wholly unpro- 
tected. Occasionally, especially in the larger towns, there was 
a night watchman. But he was a noisy nuisance. To con- 
vince his employers that he was awake, he frequently clapped 
together two pieces of wood. All night long that strident 
clack, clack, clack, resounded every few seconds. It is an odd 
custom, for of course it advertises to thieves the location of the 
watchman. But there is much in China that is odd to an 
American. 

On a tour in Asia, the foreigner who does not wish to be ill 
will exercise reasonable care. It looks smart to take insufficient 
sleep, snatch a hurried meal out of a tin can, drink unboiled 
water and walk or ride in the sun without a pith hat or an 
umbrella. Some foreigners who ought to know better are care- 
less about these things and good-naturedly chaff one who is 
more particular. But while one should not be unnecessarily 
fussy, yet if he is courageous enough to be sensible, he will not 
only preserve his health, but be physically benefited by his 
tour, while the heedless man will probably be floored by dysen- 
tery or even if he escapes that scourge will reach his destination 
so worn out that he must take days or perhaps weeks to re- 
cuperate. I was not ill a day, made what Dr. Bergen called 
"the record tour of Shantung," and came out in splendid 
health and spirits just because I had nerve enough to insist on 
taking reasonable time for eating and sleeping, boiling my 
drinking water, and buying the fresh vegetables and fruit with 
which the country abounded. From this view-point. Dr. 



Some Experiences of a Traveller 91 

Charles F. Jolinson, who escorted me from Chining-chou to 
Tsing-tau, was a model. With no loss of time, with but trifling 
additional expense and with comparatively little extra trouble, 
he had an appetizing table, while water bottles and fruit tins 
were always cooled in buckets of well water so that they were 
grateful to a dusty, thirsty throat. It is not difficult to make 
oneself fairly comfortable in travelling even when nearly all 
modern conveniences are wanting and it pays to take the neces- 
sary trouble. 

Throughout the tour, we were watched in a way that was 
suggestive. When United States Consul Fowler first told me 
that Governor Yuan Shih Kai would send a military escort 
with me, I said that I was not proud, that I did not care to go 
through Shantung with the pomp and panoply of war, that I 
was on a peaceful, conciliatory errand, and preferred to travel 
with only my missionary companions. But he replied that 
while the province was then quiet, no one could tell what an 
hour might bring forth, that in the tension that existed even a 
local and sporadic attack on a foreigner might be a signal for a 
new outbreak, that the Governor was trying to keep the people 
in hand, and that as he was held responsible for consequences 
he must be allowed to have his own men in charge of a foreign 
party that purposed to journey so far into the interior. So, of 
course, I yielded. 

When I lifted up my eyes and looked on the escort at Kiao- 
chou, I felt that my fears of pomp and panoply had been 
groundless, for the "escort" consisted of two disreputable- 
looking coolies who had apparently been picked up on the 
street and who were armed with antiquated flint-locks that 
were more dangerous to their bearers than to an enemy. I am 
sure that these "guards" would have been the first to run at 
the slightest sign of danger. We did not see them again till 
we reached Kaomi, where we gave them a present and sent 
them back, glad to be rid of them. We afterwards learned 
that they were only the retainers of the local Kiao-chou yamen 



92 New Forces in Old China 

to see us to the border of the hinterland, which Governor 
Yuan's troops were not permitted to cross. 

But the men who met us at the border were soldiers of 
another type — powerful looking cavalrymen on excellent horses. 
Remembering the stories we had heard regarding the murder 
of foreigners by Chinese troops who had been sent ostensibly 
to guard them, we were relieved to find that there were only 
three of them, and as there were three of us, we felt safe, for we 
believed that in an emergency we could whip them. When 
on leaving Wei-hsien the number increased to five and then to 
six, we became dubious. But we concluded that as we were 
active, stalwart men, we might in a pinch manage twice our 
number of Chinese soldiers or, if worst came to worst, as we 
were unencumbered by women, children or luggage, we could 
sprint, on the old maxim, 

" He that fights and runs away 
Will live to fight another day." 

But when a little later, the force grew to eleven and then to 
fifteen, we were hopelessly out-classed, especially as they were 
well-mounted and armed not only with swords but with mod- 
ern magazine rifles. 

The result, however, proved that our fears were groundless, 
for the men were good soldiers, intelligent, respectful, well- 
drilled, and thoroughly disciplined. They treated us with 
strict military etiquette, standing at attention and saluting in 
the most approved military fashion whenever they spoke to us 
or we to them. I was not accustomed to travelling in such 
state. Our three shendzas meant six mules and three mule- 
teers, one for each shendza. Our cook and "boy" each had 
a donkey, and a pack-mule was necessary for our food sup- 
plies. So including the men and horses of the escort, we 
usually had nineteen men and twenty animals and a part of the 
time we had even a larger number. We therefore made quite 
a procession, and attracted considerable attention. I suspect, 




PART OF THE AUTHOR'S ESCORT 
OF CHINESE CAVALRYMEN 




WATCHING THE AUTHOR WRITING IN HIS 
DIARY AT A NOON STOP - - A Snap Shot 



Some Experiences of a Traveller 93 

however, that some of those shrewd Chinese were not deceived 
as to my humble station at home for one man asked the mis- 
sionary who accompanied me whether I travelled with an escort 
in America ! 

The lieutenant commanding our escort said that he received 
forty-two taels a month/ the sergeants eleven taels, and the 
privates nine taels. The men buy their own food, but their 
clothing, horses, provender, etc., are furnished by the Govern- 
ment. This is big pay for China. The lieutenant further said 
that Governor Yuan Shih Kai had thirty regiments of a nomi- 
nal strength of 500 each and an actual strength of 250, making 
a total of 7,500, and that the soldiers had been drilled by 
German officers at Tien-tsin. There are no foreign officers 
now connected with the force, but there are two foreign edu- 
cated Chinese who receive 300 taels a month each. He further 
said that all the men with us had killed Boxers and that he 
was confident that they could rout 1,000 of them. An illus- 
tration of the reputation of these troops occurred during my 
visit in Paoting-fu a little later. A messenger breathlessly 
reported that the Allied Villagers, who had banded themselves 
together to resist the collection of indemnity, had captured a 
city only ninety li southward and that they intended to march 
on Paoting-fu itself. Three thousand of Yuan Shih Kai's 
troops had been ordered to go to Peking to prepare for the 
return of the Emperor and Empress Dowager, but the French 
general at Paoting-fu had forbade them coming beyond a point 
a hundred li south of Paoting-fu, so that they were then en- 
camped there awaiting further orders. The Prefect hastily wired 
Viceroy Li Hung Chang in Peking asking him to order these 
troops to retake the recaptured city, as the Imperial troops were 
" needed here," a euphemism for saying that they were useless. 
Li Hung Chang gave the desired order and the seasoned troops 
of Yuan Shih Kai made short work of the Allied Villagers. 

At any rate, those who escorted me through Shantung were 
' A tael equals sixty-five cents at the present rate of exchange. 



94 New Forces in Old China 

certainly good soldiers. They had splendid horses and took 
good care of them, while several evenings they gave us as fine 
exhibitions of sword drill as I ever saw. I was interested to 
find that seven of them belonged to a total abstinence society, 
though none of them were Christians. I became really at- 
tached to them. They were very patient, although my journey 
compelled them to make a long and hard march for which they 
received no extra pay. On the last evening of the trip, I gave 
them a feast in the most approved Chinese style. I made a 
little farewell address and gave the officer in charge the follow- 
ing letter which seemed to please them greatly : — 

"June 27th, 1 90 1. 
" To His Excellency, 

" General Yuan Shih Kai, 

" Governor of the Province of Shantung, China, 
" Sir : 

" In completing my tour of the Province of Shantung, I have pleas- 
ure in expressing my high appreciation, and that of the missionaries of the 
Presbyterian Church who accompanied me, of the excellent conduct of the 
soldiers who formed our escort under the command of (Lieutenant) Wang 
Pa Chung. Both he and his troopers were courteous and faithful, atten- 
tive to every duty and meriting our admiration for the perfection of their 
discipline. 

" We regret the death of one of their horses, but we are satisfied that 
the soldier was in no way to blame. The animal died in the inn court- 
yard early in the morning. 

" I have had pleasure in giving the officer and his men a feast. In 
addition I offered them a present, but the Wang Pa Chung declined to 
accept it. 

" Thanking you for your courtesy in detailing such good soldiers for 
our escort, 

" I have, sir, the honour to be 

" Your obedient servant, 

(Signed) "Arthur J. Brown." 

I was impressed by the refusal to accept the present, which 
was a considerable sum to Chinese. But the men were evi- 
dently under strict orders. The lieutenant was polite and 



Some Experiences of a Traveller 95 

grateful, but he said that he "could not accept a gift if it were 
ten thousand taels." 

During the whole tour, these soldiers watched us with a fidel- 
ity that was almost embarrassing at times. Not for a moment 
did they lose sight of us except when we were in the mission 
compounds. If we took a walk about a village, they followed 
us. Eating, sleeping or travelling, we were always watched. 
Several times we tried to escape such espionage, or to induce 
the soldiers to turn back. We did not feel our need of them, 
nor did I desire my peaceful mission to be associated with mil- 
itary display. Besides, if hostility had been manifested, a 
dozen Chinese soldiers would have been of little avail among 
those swarming millions. But our efforts and protests were 
vain and we had no alternative but to submit with the best 
grace possible. 

Nor was this all, for many of the magistrates whose districts 
we crossed en route added other attentions. Indeed, they ap- 
peared to be almost nervously anxious that no mishap should 
befall us. I had sent no announcement of my coming to any 
one except my missionary friends, nor had I asked for any favour 
or protection save the usual passport through the United States 
Consul. But the first Tao-tai I met politely inquired about my 
route, and, as I afterwards learned, sent word to the next mag- 
istrate. He in turn forwarded the word to the one beyond, 
and so on throughout the whole trip. As we approached a 
city, uniformed attendants from the chief magistrate's yamen 
usually met us and escorted us, sometimes with much display 
of banners and trumpets and armed guards, to an inn which 
had been prepared for our reception by having a little of its 
dirt swept into the corners and a few of its bugs killed. Then 
would come a feast of many courses of Chinese delicacies. A 
call from the magistrate himself often followed, and he would 
chat amicably while great crowds stood silently about. 

There was something half pathetic about the attentions we re- 
ceived. Our journey was like a triumphal procession. For 



96 New Forces in Old China 

example, twenty li from Chang Ku a messenger on horseback 
met us. He had evidently been on the watch, for after kneel- 
ing he galloped back with the news of our approach. Soon 
a dozen soldiers in scarlet uniforms appeared, saluted, wheeled 
and marched before us to an inn where we found rugs on the 
floor and kangs, a cloth on the table and two elevated seats 
covered with scarlet robes. Attendants from the yamen with 
their red tasselled helmets were numerous and attentive. 
Basins of water were brought and presently the magistrate sent 
an elaborate feast. As we finished the repast, the magistrate 
himself called. He was very affable and made quite a long 
call. In like manner the district magistrate of Fei-hsien sent 
his secretary, personal flags and twenty soldiers twenty li to 
meet us. They knelt as we approached and shouted in 
unison — "We wish the great man peace I " So as usual we 
entered the town with pomp and circuiTistance, our own escort 
added to the local one making a brave show. 

And these were typical experiences. We could not prevent 
them and to resent them would have made the official "lose 
face " and so embittered him. At Pien-kiao, where a hundred 
of Governor Yuan Shih Kai's troops were stationed, the whole 
garrison turned out, meeting us a couple of miles from the city 
and escorting us to our inn with blares of trumpets which 
Dr. Johnson said were only sounded for high officials. 
We were awakened at three o'clock the next morning by the 
bellowing of calves and the braying of mules in the inn court- 
yard, and as we had our longest day's journey ahead of us, we 
rose, breakfasted at four by candle-light and were on the road 
at a quarter of five. But in spite of the early hour, the whole 
garrison again turned out and lined the road at "present 
arms " as we passed. 

Think of the mayor of an American city of fifty or a hun- 
dred thousand habitants hastening to call in state on three 
unknown travellers, who were simply stopping for luncheon at a 
hotel, and sending a couple dozen policemen to escort them in 



Some Experiences of a Traveller 97 

and out of town ! The Shantung Chinese are a strong, proud, 
independent people, and it must have cost them something to be 
so effusive to foreigners. There was doubtless in it some real 
regard for Americans and American missionaries. But policy 
was probably also a factor. The officials felt that any further 
attack on foreigners would be a pretext for further foreign 
aggression, an excuse for Germany to advance from Kiao-chou, 
and they were anxious not to give occasion for it. Each 
official was apparently determined to make it plain that he was 
doing his duty in trying to protect these foreigners so that if 
they got hurt it would not be his fault. Perhaps, too, he was 
not averse to showing the populace that foreigners had to be 
guarded. I was half ashamed to travel in that way. But I 
could not help myself. Sometimes I felt that the guard was not 
so much for us as for the Chinese, assuring nervous officials that 
foreigners should have no further excuse for aggression and 
warning the evil-disposed that they must not commit acts 
which might get the officials into trouble. 

Whatever the reasons were, they were plainly impersonal. 
No one of us had any official status nor were we as individuals 
of any consequence whatever to Chinese officials. We were 
simply white men and as such we were regarded as repre- 
sentatives of a race which had made its power felt. Perhaps 
the soldiers and the orders of Governor Yuan Shih Kai had 
much to do with the quietness of the people, but some way 
I felt perfectly safe. Whether any attack would have been 
made if I had been allowed to journey quietly with my one or 
two missionary companions, I am not competent to judge. 
Foreigners who had lived many years in China told me before 
starting that my life would not be safe beyond rifle shot. 
They have told me since that the profuse attentions that we re- 
ceived were mere pretence, that the very officials who wel- 
comed us as honoured guests probably cursed our race as soon 
as our backs were turned, and that if the people had not un- 
derstood from the presence of troops and from the magistrates' 



98 New Forces in Old China 

marked personal attentions that we were not to be molested, 
we might have met with violence in a dozen places. The 
opinions of such experienced men were not to be lightly set 
aside. 

All I can say is that on these suppositions the Chinese are 
masters of the art of dissimulation, for in all our journeyings 
through the very heart of the region where the Boxers origi- 
nated, and where the anti-foreign hatred was said to be bitter- 
est, we saw not a sign of unfriendliness. The typical official re- 
ceived us with the courtesy of a "gentleman of the old school." 
The vast throngs that quickly assembled at every stopping 
place, while silent, were respectful. We tried to behave de- 
cently ourselves, to speak kindly to every man, to pay fair 
prices for what we bought ; in short, to act just as we would 
have acted in America. And every man to whom we smiled, 
smiled in return. Wherever we asked a civil question we got 
a civil answer. Coolies would stop their barrows, farmers 
leave their fields to direct us aright. In all our travelling in 
the interior, amid a population so dense that we constantly 
marvelled, we never heard a rude word or saw a hostile sign. 
I naturally find it difficult to believe that those pleasant, 
obliging people would have killed us if they had not been re- 
strained by their magistrates, and that the officials who exerted 
themselves to show us all possible honour would have gladly 
murdered us if they had dared. 

And yet less than a year before, the Chinese had angrily des- 
troyed the property and venomously sought the lives of for- 
eigners who were as peaceably disposed as we were, ruthlessly 
hunting men and women who had never done them wrong, and 
who had devoted their lives to teaching the young and healing 
the sick and preaching the gospel of love and good will. Why 
they did this we shall have occasion to observe in a later 
chapter. • ^ . 



PART II 

The Commercial Force and the Economic 
Revolution 



Uft 



VIII 

WORLD CONDITIONS THAT ARE AFFECTING CHINA> 

SEVERAL outside forces have pressed steadily and heav- 
ily upon the exclusiveness and conservatism of the 
Chinese, and though they have not yet succeeded in 
changing the essential character of the nation, they have set 
in motion vast movements which have already convulsed great 
sections of the Empire and which are destined to affect stu- 
pendous transformations. The first of these forces is foreign 
commerce. 

To understand the operation of this force, we must consider 
that its impact has been enormously increased by the extension 
of facilities for intercommunication. The extent to which these 
have revolutionized the world is one of the most extraordinary 
features of our extraordinary age. It is startlingly significant 
of the change that has taken place that Russia and Japan, na- 
tions 7,000 miles apart by land and a still greater distance by 
water, are able in the opening years of the twentieth century 
to wage war in a region which one army can reach in four 
weeks and the other in four days, and that all the rest of the 
world can receive daily information as to the progress of the 
conflict. A half century ago, Russia could no more have sent 
a large army to Manchuria than to the moon, while down to 
the opening of her ports by Commodore Perry in 1854, the few 
wooden vessels that made the long journey to Japan found an 
unprogressive and bitterly anti-foreign heathen nation with an 
edict issued in 1638 still on its statute books declaring — "So 
long as the sun shall continue to warm the earth, let no Chris- 
tian be so bold as to come to Japan ; and let all know that the 
King of Spain himself, or the Christian's God, or the great God 

' Part of this chapter appeared as an article in the American Monthly 
Review of Reviews, October, 1904. 

lOI 



102 New Forces in Old China 

of all, if He dare violate this command, shall pay for it with 
his head." 

Nor were other far-eastern peoples any more hospitable. 
China, save for a few port cities, was as impenetrable as when 
in 1552 the dying Xavier had cried — "O Rock, Rock, when 
wilt thou open ! " Siam excluded all foreigners until the cen- 
tury's first quarter had passed, and Laos saw no white man till 
1868. A handful of British traders were so greedily deter- 
mined to keep all India as a private commercial preserve that, 
forgetting their own indebtedness to Christianity, they sneered 
at the proposal to send missionaries to India as "the maddest, 
most expensive, most unwarranted project ever proposed by a 
lunatic enthusiast," while as late as 1857, a director of the 
East India Company declared that " he would rather see a band 
of devils in India than a band of missionaries. " Korea was 
rightly called "the hermit nation " until 1882; and as for 
Africa, it was not till 1873 that the world learned of that part 
of it in which the heroic Livingstone died on his knees, not till 
1877 that Stanley staggered into a West Coast settlement after 
a desperate journey of 999 days from Zanzibar through Central 
Africa, not till 1884 that the Berlin Conference formed the In- 
ternational Association of the Congo guaranteeing that which 
has not yet been realized "liberty of conscience" and "the 
free and public exercise of every creed." 

Even in America within the memory of men still living, the 
lumbering, white-topped "prairie schooner" was the only 
conveyance for the tedious overland journey to California. 
Hardy frontiersmen were fighting Indians in the Mississippi 
Valley, and the bold Whitman was " half a year " in bearing a 
message from Oregon to Washington. 

The Hon. John W. Foster tells us in his " Century of Amer- 
ican Diplomacy " that "General Lane, the first territorial gov- 
ernor of Oregon, left his home in Indiana, August 27, 1848, 
and desiring to reach his destination as soon as possible, travel- 
ling overland to San Francisco and thence by ship, reached his 



World Conditions that are Affecting China 103 

post on the first of March following — the journey occupying 
six months. At the time our treaty of peace and independence 
was signed in 1783, two stage-coaches were sufficient for all the 
passengers and nearly all the freight between New York and 
Boston." It is only seventy years since the Rev. John Lowrie, 
with his bride and Mr. and Mrs. Reed, rode horseback from 
Pittsburg through flooded rivers and over the Allegheny 
Mountains to Philadelphia, whence it took them four and 
a-half months to reach Calcutta. 

Nor was this all, for scores of the conveniences and even 
necessities of our modern life were unknown at the beginning 
of the nineteenth century. To get some idea of the vastness 
of the revolution in the conditions of living, we have but to 
remind ourselves that " in the year 1800 no steamer ploughed 
the waters ; no locomotive traversed an inch of soil ; no photo- 
graphic plate had ever been kissed by sunlight ; no telephone 
had ever talked from town to town ; steam had never driven 
mighty mills and electric currents had never been harnessed 
into telegraph and trolley wires." * " In all the land there was no 
power loom, no power press, no large manufactory in textiles, 
wood or iron, no canal. The possibilities of electricity in 
light, heat and power were unknown and unsuspected. The 
cotton gin had just begun its revolutionary work. Intercom- 
munication was difficult, the postal service slow and costly, 
literature scanty and mostly of inferior quality. ' ' * 

How marvellously the application of steam as a motive 
power has united once widely separated regions. So swiftly 
have the changes come and so quickly have we adapted our- 
selves to them that it is difficult to realize the magnitude of the 
transformation that has been achieved. We can ride from 
Pittsburg to Philadelphia in eight hours and to Calcutta in 
twenty-two days. The journey across our own continent is no 
longer marked by the ox-cart and the campfire and the bones 

1 The Rev. Dr. Theodore Cuyler. 

2 Address of the Bishops of the M. E. Church, 1900. 



104 New Forces in Old China 

of perished expeditions. It is simply a pleasant trip of less 
than a week, and in an emergency in August, 1903, Henry P. 
Lowe travelled from New York to Los Angeles, 3,241 miles, in 
seventy-three hours and twenty-one minutes. Populous states 
covered with a network of railway and telegraph lines invite 
the nations of the world to join them in celebrating at St. 
Louis the " Purchase " of a region which a hundred years ago 
was as foreign to the American people as the Philippines now 
are. The Rev. Dr. Calvin Mateer, who in 1863 was six 
months in reaching Chefoo, China, on a voyage from whose 
hardships his wife never fully recovered, returned in a com- 
fortable journey of one month in 1902. To-day, for all prac- 
tical purposes, China is nearer New York than California once 
was. 

No waters are too remote for the modern steamer. Its smoke 
trails across every sea and far up every navigable stream. Ten 
mail steamers regularly run on the Siberian Yenisei, while the 
Obi, flowing from the snows of the Little Altai Mountains, 
bears 302 steam vessels on various parts of its 2,000-mile 
journey to the Obi Gulf on the Arctic Ocean. Stanley could 
now go from Glasgow to Stanley Falls in forty-three days. 
Already there are forty-six steamers on the Upper Congo. 
From Cape Town, a railway 2,000 miles long runs via Bula- 
wayo to Beira on the Portuguese coast, while branch lines reach 
several formerly inaccessible mining and agricultural regions. 
June 22, 1904, almost the whole population of Cape Town 
cheered the departure of the first through train for Victoria 
Falls, where the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science has been invited to meet in 1905. Uganda is reached 
by rail. Five hundred and eighty miles of track unite Mom- 
basa and Victoria Nyanza. Sleeping and dining cars safely 
run the 575 miles from Cairo to Khartoum where only five 
years ago Lord Kitchener fought the savage hordes of the 
Mahdi. The Englishman's dream of a railroad from Cairo to 
the Cape is more than half realized, for 2,800 miles are already 



World Conditions that are Affecting China 105 

completed. In 1903, Japan had 4,237 miles of well managed 
railways which in 1902 carried 111,211,208 passengers and 
14,409,752 tons of freight. India is gridironed by 25,373 
miles of steel rails which in 1901 carried 195,000,000 passen- 
gers. A railroad parallels the Burmese Irrawaddy to Bhamo and 
Mandalay. In Siam you can ride by rail from Bangkok north- 
ward to Korat and westward to Petchaburee. The Trans- 
Siberian Railway now connects St. Petersburg and Peking. In 
Korea, the line from Chemulpho to Seoul connects with lines 
under construction both southward and northward, so that ere 
long one can journey by rail from Fusan on the Korean Strait 
to Wiju on the Yalu River. As the former is but ten hours by 
sea from Japan and as the latter is to form a junction with the 
Trans-Siberian Railway, a land journey in a sleeping car will 
soon be practicable from London and Paris to the capitals of 
China and Korea, and, save for the ferry across the Korean 
Strait, to any part of the Mikado's kingdom. The locomotive 
runs noisily from Jaifa to venerable Jerusalem and from Beirut 
over the passes of Lebanon to Damascus, the oldest city in the 
world. A projected line will run from there to the Moham- 
medan Mecca, so that soon the Moslem pilgrims will abandon 
the camel for the passenger coach. Most wonderful of all is 
the Anatolian Railway which is to run through the heart of 
Asia Minor, traversing the Karamanian plateau, the Taurus 
Mountains and the Cilician valleys to Haran where Abraham 
tarried, and Nineveh where Jonah preached, and Babylon 
where Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, and Bagdad 
where Haroun-al-Raschid ruled, to Koweit on the Persian Gulf. 
In a single month forty-five Philadelphia engines have been 
ordered for India. The American locomotive is to-day speed- 
ing across the steppes of Siberia, through the valleys of Japan, 
across the uplands of Burmah and around the mountainsides 
of South America. " Yankee bridge-builders have cast up a 
highway in the desert where the chariot of Cambyses was 
swallowed up by the sands. The steel of Pennsylvania spans 



lo6 New Forces in Old China 

the Atbara, makes a road to Meroe," and crosses the rivers of 
Peru. Trains on the two imperial highways of Africa — the 
one from Cairo to the Cape and the other from the upper Nile 
to the Red Sea — are to be hauled by American engines over 
American bridges, while the " forty centuries " which Napoleon 
Bonaparte said looked down from the pyramids see not the 
soldiers of France, but the manufacturing agents of Europe and 
America. Whether or not we are to have a political im- 
perialism, we already have an industrial imperialism. 

Walter J. Ballard declares ' that the aggregate capital in- 
vested in railways at the end of 1902 was ^36,850,000,000 and 
that the total mileage was 532,500 distributed as follows : — 

Miles 

United States 202,471 

Europe 180,708 

Asia 4i>8i4 

South America 28,654 

North America (Except U. S.) . . 24,032 

Australia 15.649 

Africa 14,187 

Jules Verne's story, <* Around the World in Eighty Days" 
was deemed fantastic in 1873. But in 1903, James Willis 
Sayre of Seattle, Washington, travelled completely around the 
world in fifty-four days and nine hours, while the Russian 
Minister of Railroads issues the following schedule of possi- 
bilities when the Trans-Siberian Railroad has completed its 
plans : — 

From St. Petersburg to Vladivostok 10 days 

" Vladivostok to San Francisco 10 " 

" San Francisco to New York 4)4 " 

" New York to Bremen 7 " 

" Bremen to St. Petersburg IJS^ " 

Total 33 days 

As for the risks incident to such a tour, it is significant that 
' New York Sun, July 13, 1903. 



World Conditions that are Affecting China I07 

for iny own journey around the world, a conservative insurance 
company, for a consideration of only fifty dollars, guaranteed 
for a year to indemnify me in case of incapacitating accident to 
the extent of fifty dollars a week and in case of death to pay 
my heirs ^10,000. And the company made money on the 
arrangement, for I met with neither illness nor accident. With 
a very few unimportant exceptions, there are now no hermit 
nations, for the remotest lands are within quick and easy reach. 

And now electricity has ushered in an era more wondrous 
still. Trolley cars run through the streets of Seoul and 
Bangkok. The Empress Dowager of China wires her decrees 
to the Provincial Governors. Telegraph lines belt the globe, 
enabling even the provincial journal to print the news of the 
entire world during the preceding twenty-four hours. We 
know to-day what occurred yesterday in Tokyo and Beirut, 
Shanghai and Batanga. The total length of all telegraph 
lines in the world is 4,908,921 miles, — the nerves of our 
modern civilization. And it is remarkable not only that 
Europe has 1,764,790 miles, America 2,516,548 miles and 
Australia 277,479 miles, but that Africa has 99,409 miles and 
Asia 310,685 miles, Japan alone having, in 1903, 84,000 miles 
beside 108,000 miles of telephone wires. 

I found the telegraph in Siam and Korea, in China and the 
Philippines, in Burma, India, Arabia, Egypt and Palestine. 
Camping one night in far Northern Laos after a toilsome ride 
on elephants, I realized that I was 12,500 miles from home, at 
as remote a point almost as it would be possible for man to 
reach. All about was the wilderness, relieved only by the few 
houses of a small village. But walking into that tiny hamlet, I 
found at the police station a telephone connecting with the 
telegraph office at Chieng-mai, so that, though I was on the 
other side of the planet, I could have sent a telegram to my 
New York office in a few minutes. Nor was this an ex- 
ceptional experience, for the telegraph is all over Laos, as in- 
deed it is over many other Asiatic lands. 



]o8 New Forces in Old China 

From the recesses of Africa comes the report that the Congo 
telegraph line, which will ultimately stretch across the entire 
belt of Central Africa, already runs 800 miles up the Congo 
River from the ocean to Kwamouth, the junction of the 
Kassai and Congo Rivers. A Belgian paper states that "a 
telegram dispatched from Kwamouth on January 15 th was 
delivered at Boma half an hour later. For the future, the 
Kassai is thus placed in direct and rapid communication with 
the seat of Government, and Europe is also brought close to the 
centre of Africa. Only a few years ago, news took at least two 
months to reach Boma from the Kassai, and the reply would 
not be received under another two months, and this only if the 
parties were available and the steamer ready to start." 

More significant still are the submarine cables which aggre- 
gate 1,751 in number and over 200,000 miles in length and 
which annually transmit more than 6,000,000 messages, 
annihilating the time and distance which formerly separated 
nations. When King William IV of England died in 1837, 
the news was thirty-five days in reaching America. But when 
Queen Victoria passed away January 22, 1901, at 6:30 p. M., 
the afternoon papers describing the event were being sold in 
the streets of New York at 3:30 p. m. of the same day ! As I 
rose to address a union meeting of the English speaking resi- 
dents of Canton, China, on that fateful September day of 190 1, 
a message was handed me which read, " President McKinley is 
dead." So that by means of the submarine cable, that little 
company of Englishmen and Americans in far-off China bowed 
in grief and prayer simultaneously with multitudes in the home 
land. 

Not only Europe and America, but Siberia and Australia, 
New Zealand and New Caledonia, Korea and the Kameruns, 
Laos and Persia are within the sweep of this modern system of 
intercommunication. The latest as well as one of the most 
important links in this world system is the Commercial 
Pacific Cable between Manila and San Francisco. 



World Conditions that are Affecting China 109 

President Roosevelt gave a significant illustration of the per- 
fection of this system when, on the completion of the 
Commercial Pacific Cable July 4, 1903, he flashed a message 
around the earth in twelve minutes, while a second message 
sent by Clarence H. Mackay, President of the Pacific Cable 
Company, made the circuit of the earth in nine minutes. 

What additional possibilities are involved in the wireless 
system of telegraphy we can only conjecture, but it is already 
apparent that this system has passed the experimental stage 
and that it is destined to achieve still more amazing results. A 
startling illustration of its possibilities was given by the 
Japanese fleet March 22, 1904. A cruiser lay off Port Arthur 
and by wireless messages enabled battleships, riding safely 
eight miles away, to bombard fortifications which they could 
not see and which could not see them. 

Commerce has taken swift and massive advantages of these 
facilities for intercommunication. Its ships whiten every sea. 
The products of European and American manufacture are 
flooding the earth. The United States Treasury Bureau of 
Statistics (1903) estimates that the value of the manufactured 
articles which enter into the international commerce of the 
world is four billions of dollars and that of this vast total, the 
United States furnishes 400,000,000, its foreign trade having 
increased over 100 per cent, since 1895. While the bulk of 
the foreign trade of the United States is with Europe, American 
business men are gradually awaking to the greatness of their 
opportunity in Asia. A characteristic example of their aggress- 
iveness was given when President James J. Hill, of the Great 
Northern Railroad, testified before a Government Commission, 
October 20, 1902 : — 

" We arranged with a line of steamers to connect with our road so that 
we could get the Oriental outlet. I remember when the Japanese were 
going to buy rails, I asked them where they were going to buy, and they 
said in England or Belgium. I asked them to wait until I telegraphed. 
I wired and made the rates, so tliat we made the price ^1.50 a ton lower 



no New Forces in Old China 

and sold for America 40,000 tons of rails. Then I got them to try a little 
of the American cotton, telling them if it was not satisfactory I would pay 
for the cotton, and the result was satisfactory." 

In these ways, the interrelation of nations is becoming 
closer and closer, their separation from the world's life more 
and more difficult. Dr. Josiah Strong well observes : — 

^ " Until the nineteenth century, there was but little contact between 
different peoples throughout the world. They were separated, not only 
by distances hard to overcome, but by differences of speech, of faith, of 
mental habit and mode of life, of custom and costume, of government and 
law, and isolation tended steadily to emphasize the divergence which al- 
ready existed. Thus increasing differences of environment perpetuated 
and intensified the differences of civilization which they had created. In 
other words, until the nineteenth century, the stream of tendency down 
all the ages was towards diversity. Then came the change, the results 
of which are, in their magnitude and importance, beyond calculation. 
Steam annihilated nine-tenths of space, and electricity has cancelled the 
remainder. Isolation is, therefore, becoming impossible, for the world is 
now a neighbourhood. This means that differences of environment will, 
from this time on, become constantly less. The swift ships of commerce 
are mighty shuttles which are weaving the nations together into one great 
web of life." \ 



IX 

THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION IN ASIA ' 

THE result of the operation of this commercial force is 
an economic revolution of vast proportions. Wher- 
ever I went in Asia, I found wider interest in this sub- 
ject than in the aggressions of European nations. The reason 
is obvious. The common people in Asia care little for politics, 
but the price of food and raiment touches every man, woman 
and child at a sensitive point. Almost everywhere, the old 
days of cheap living are passing away. Steamers, railways, 
telegraphs, newspapers, labour-saving machinery, and the in- 
troduction of western ideas are slowly but surely revolutionizing 
the Orient. Shantung wheat, which formerly had no market 
beyond a radius of a few dozen miles from the wheat-field, can 
now be shipped by railroad and steamship to any part of the 
world, and every Chinese buyer has to pay more for it in conse- 
quence. In like manner new facilities for export have doubled, 
trebled and, in some places, quadrupled the price of rice in 
China, Siam and Japan. The Consul-General of the United 
States at Shanghai reports that the prices of seventeen staple 
articles of export have increased sixteen per cent, in twenty 
years while in Japan the increase in the same articles for the 
same period was thirty-one per cent." 

The depreciation in the value of silver has still further com- 
plicated the situation. The common Chinese tael, which for- 
merly bought from 1,500 to 1,800 cash (the current coin of 
China), now buys only 950 cash. The Shanghai tael brings 

' Part of this chapter appeared as an article in the Centttry Magazine, 
March, 1904. 
' " Commercial China," p. 2902. 



1 1 2 New Forces in Old China 

897 cash, and the Mexican dollar only 665. This of course, 
means that the common people, who use only cash, have to pay 
a larger number of them for the necessaries of life. The same 
difficulty is being felt to a greater or less extent in many other 
countries of Asia, while in China, an already serious advance 
in prices is being heightened by the heavy import taxes which 
have been levied to meet the indemnity imposed by the West- 
ern Powers on account of the Boxer outbreak. 

r^The prices of labour and materials have sharply advanced in 
consequence of the enormous demands incident to the construc- 
tion of railways, with their stations, shops and round-houses, 
the vast engineering schemes of the Germans at Tsing-tau, the 
British at Wei-hai Wei and the Russians at Port Arthur, the 
extensive scale on which the Legations have rebuilt in Peking, 
the reconstruction of virtually the entire business portions of 
both Peking and Tien-tsin, as well as the coincident rebuilding 
of the mission stations of all denominations, Protestant and 
Catholic.j It will be readily understood what all this activity 
means in a land where there are as yet but limited supplies of 
the kind of skilled labourers required for foreign buildings, and 
where the requisite materials must be imported from Europe 
and America by firms who "are not in China for their health." 

It is futile to hope that the competition will be materially less 
next year, or the year after, or the year after that. (IZlommerce 
and politics are projecting works in China which will not be 
completed for many years. Railway officials told me of projected 
lines which will require decades for construction. China has 
entered upon an era of commercial development. The West- 
ern world has come to stay, and while there may be temporary 
reactions, as there have been at home, prices are not likely to 
return to their former level. There are vast interior regions 
which will not be affected for an indefinite period, but for the 
coast provinces, primitive conditions are passing forever. 

The knowledge of modern inventions and of other foods 
and articles has created new wants. The Chinese peasant is no 




THE BUND, SHANGHAI 



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AMERICAN CIGARETTE POSTERS ON A 
CHINESE BRIDGE 



The Economic Revolution in Asia 1 13 

longer content to burn bean oil ; he wants kerosene. In 
scores of humble Loas homes and markets I saw American 
lamps costing twenty rupees apiece, and a magistrate proudly 
showed me a collection of nineteen of these shining articles. 
Forty thousand dollars worth of these lamps were sold in Siam 
last year. The narrow streets of Canton are brilliant with Ger- 
man chandeliers and myriads of private houses throughout the 
Empire are lighted by foreign lamps. The desire of the 
Asiatic to possess foreign lamps is only equalled by his passion 
for foreign clocks. I counted twenty-seven in the private 
apartments of the Emperor of China and my wife counted 
nineteen in a single room of the Empress Dowager's palace, 
while cheaper ones tick to the delighted wonder of myriads of 
humbler people. The ambitious Syrian scorns the mud roof 
of his ancestors and will only be satisfied with bright red tiles 
imported from France. In almost every Asiatic city I visited, 
I found shops crowded with articles of foreign manufacture. 
"Made in Germany" is as familiar a phrase in Siam as in 
America. Many children in China are arrayed only in the at- 
mosphere, but when I was in Taian-fu, in the far interior of 
Shantung, hundreds of parents were in consternation because 
the magistrate had just placarded the walls with an edict an- 
nouncing that hereafter boys and girls must wear clothes and 
that they would be arrested if found on the streets naked. At 
a banquet given to the foreign ministers by the Emperor and 
the Empress Dowager in the famous Summer Palace twelve 
miles from Peking, the distinguished guests cut York ham with 
Sheffield knives and drank French wines out of German glasses. 
Everywhere articles of foreign manufacture are in demand, 
and shrewd Chinese merchants are stocking their shops with 
increasing quantities of European and American goods. The 
new Chinese Presbyterian Church at Wei-hsien typifies the ele- 
ments that are entering Asia for it contains Chinese brick, 
Oregon fir beams, German steel binding-plates and rods, Bel- 
gian glass, Manchurian pine pews, and British cement.^J 



114 N^"^ Forces in Old China 

India is eagerly buying American rifles, tools, boots and 
shoes, while vast regions which depend upon irrigation are be- 
coming interested in American well-boring outfits. Persia is 
demanding increasing quantities of American padlocks, sewing- 
machines and agricultural implements. German, English and 
American machinery is equipping great cotton factories in 
Japan. I saw Russian and American oil tins in the remotest 
villages of Korea. Strolling along the river bank one evening 
in Paknampo, Siam, I heard a familiar whirring sound and 
entering found a bare-legged Siamese busily at work on a sew- 
ing-machine of American make. Nearly five hundred of them 
are sold in Siam every year, and I found them in most of the 
cities that I visited in other Asiatic countries. When I left 
Lampoon on an elephant, six hundred miles north of Bangkok, 
a Laos gentleman rode beside me for several miles on an Amer- 
ican bicycle. There are thousands of them in Siam. His 
Majesty himself frequently rides one and His Royal Highness, 
Prince Damrong, is president of a bicycle club of four hundred 
menibers. The king's palace is lighted by electricity and the 
Government buildings are equipped with telephones, and as the 
nobles and merchants see the brilliancy of tlie former and the 
convenience of the latter, they want them, too. In many 
parts of Asia people, who but a decade or two ago were satis- 
fied with the crudest appliances of primitive life, are now 
learning to use steam and electrical machinery, to like Oregon 
flour, Chicago beef, Pittsburg pickles and London jam, and to 
see the utility of foreign wire, nails, cutlery, drugs, paints and 
chemicals. 

Many other illustrations of a changed condition might be 
cited. Knowledge increases wants and the Oriental is acquir- 
ing knowledge. He demands a hundred things to-day that his 
grandfather never heard of, and when he goes to the shops to 
buy his daily food, he finds that the new market for it which 
the foreigner has opened has increased the price. -^ 

Americans are the very last people who can consistently 



The Economic Revolution in Asia 1 1 5 

criticise this tendency in Asia. It is the foreigner who has 
created it, and the American is the n\ost prodigal of all for- 
eigners. 1 never realized until I visited other lands how ex- 
travagant is the scale of American life, not only among the 
rich, but the so-called poor. My morning walk to my New 
York office takes me along Christopher Street, and I have often 
seen in the garbage cans of tenement houses pieces of bread 
and meat and half-eaten vegetables and fruit that would give 
the average Asiatic the feast of a lifetime. In Europe, Amer- 
icans are notorious as spendthrifts. In the Philippine Islands, 
they have thrown about their money in a way which has inau- 
gurated an era of reckless lavishness comparable only to the 
California days of "forty-nine." In the port cities of China, 
the porters asked me extortionate prices because I was an 
American. Two or three coolies would seize a suit case or 
change it from man to man every few minutes, on the pretense 
that it was heavy. In Tient-tsin, you hire a jinrikisha and 
presently you find a second man pushing behind, though the 
road is smooth as a floor. In a few minutes a third appears to 
push on the other side, and once a fourth took hold between 
the second and third. All of course demand pay, and it is 
difficult to shake them off. They do not understand your pro- 
tests, or they pretend not to, and you have to be emphatic to 
get rid of them. At Tong-ku, my sampan men calmly insisted 
on two dollars for a service that was worth but forty cents. 
Everywhere, I found that it was wiser to make all purchases 
and bargains through trusty native Christians, or to ascertain 
in advance what a given service was really worth, pay it and 
walk off, deaf to all protestations and complaints, even though 
as in Seoul, Korea, the men plaintively sat around for hours. 
In Cairo, a certain hotel charged me on the supposition that 
because I was an American, I was a millionaire or a fool — per- 
haps both. True, we have hack-drivers and hotel-keepers in 
America who are equally rapacious, and a New Yorker in par- 
ticular need not go away from home to be overcharged. But 



li6 New Forces in Old China 

it is just because we have become so accustomed to this care- 
less profusion at home that we exhibit it abroad. 

But it is useless to protest against the increased cost of living 
in Asia. It is as much beyond individual control as the tides. 
The causes which are producing it are not even national but 
cosmopolitan. 

Nor should we ignore the fact that this movement is, in 
some respects at least, beneficial. It means a higher and 
broader scale of life and such a life always costs more than a 
low and narrow one. jThis economic revolution in Asia is a 
concomitant of a Christian civilization which brings not only 
higher prices but wider intellectual and spiritual horizons, a 
general enlarging and uplifting of the whole range of life. 
There are indeed some vicious influences accompanying this 
movement, as brighter lights usually have deeper shadows. 

But surely it is for good and not for evil that the farmers of 
Hunan can now ship their peanuts to England and with the 
proceeds vary the eternal monotony of a rice-diet ; that the 
girls of Siam are being taught by missionary example that 
modesty requires the purchase of a garment for street wear 
which will cover at least the breasts ; that the Korean should 
learn that it is better to have a larger house so that the girls of 
the family need not sleep in the same room as the boys ; and 
that all China should discover the advantages of roads over 
rutty, corkscrew paths, of sanitation over heaps of putrid gar- 
bage and of wooden floors over filth-encrusted ground. Chris- 
tianity inevitably involves some of these things, and to some 
extent the awakening of Asia to the need of them is a part of 
the beneficent influence of a gospel which always and every- 
where renders men dissatisfied with a narrow, squalid ex- 
istence. To make a man decent morally is to beget in him a 
desire to be decent physically. 

The native Christians, especially the pastors and teachers, 
are the very ones who first feel this movement towards a 
higher physical life. Nor should we repress it in them, for it 



The Economic Revolution in Asia 1 17 

means an environment more favourable to morals and to the 
stability of Christian character as well as a healthful example 
to the community in which they live. To say, therefore, that 
the average annual income of a Hindu is rupees twenty-seven 
(nine dollars) is not to adduce a reason for holding the pastors 
and evangelists of India down to that scale. They should, in- 
deed, live near enough to the plane of their countrymen to keep 
in sympathetic touch with them. But they should not be ex- 
pected or allowed to huddle in the dark, unventilated hovels of 
the masses of the people, or, by confining themselves to one 
scanty meal a day, have that gaunt, half-famished look which 
makes my heart ache every time I think of the walking skele- 
tons I saw in India. I am not ashamed but proud of the fact 
that it costs the average Christian more to live in Asia than it 
costs the average heathen, that the houses of the Laos Chris- 
tians are better than the single-roomed sheds about them, that 
the graduates of our Siam mission schools for girls wear shirt 
waists instead of sunshine, that the members of any one of our 
Korean churches spend more money on soap than a whole vil- 
lage of their heathen neighbours whose bodies are caked with 
the accumulations of years of neglect, that the sessions of our 
Syrian churches are Christian gentlemen in appearance as well 
as in fact, and that the houses of our Chinese Christians do not 
mix pigs, chickens and babies in one lousy, malodorous 
company. 

\ But these altered conditions have not yet brought the ability 
to meet them. The cost of living has increased faster than the 
resources of the people. Only France and Russia are prima- 
rily political in their foreign policy. England, Germany and 
the United States are avowedly commercial. They talk inces- 
santly about "the open door." Their supreme object in Asia 
is to "extend their markets." They are producing more than 
they can use themselves, and they seek an opportunity to dis- 
pose of their surplus products. They are less concerned to 
bring the products of Asia into their own territories. 



1 1 8 New Forces in Old China 

Indeed, Germany and particularly the United States have 
built a tariff wall about themselves, expressly to protect 
home industries from outside competition, and not a few 
American manufacturers have recently been on the verge of 
panic on account of Japanese competition. Europe and Amer- 
ica are trying to force their own manufactures on to Asia and 
to take in return only what they please. J 

In time, this will probably right itself, in part at least. 
While the farmers of the Mississippi Valley find living much 
more expensive than it was two generations ago, they also find 
that they get more for their wheat and that they eat better food 
and wear better clothes and build better houses than their 
grandfathers. The era of railroads ended the days of cheap 
living, but it ended as well days when the farmer had to con- 
fine himself to a diet of corn-bread and salt pork, when his 
home was destitute of comforts and his children had little 
schooling and no books. So the American working man of to- 
day has to pay more for the necessaries of life than the work- 
ing man of Europe, but he is nevertheless the best paid, the 
best fed, the best clothed and the best housed working man in 
the world, a far better and more intelligent citizen because of 
these very conditions. 

The same changes will doubtless take place in Asia. That 
great continent is capable of producing enormous quantities of 
food, minerals and both raw and manufactured articles which 
the rest of the world will sooner or later want. Already this 
foreign demand is bringing comparative wealth to the rug 
dealers of Syria, the silk embroiderers of China and the cloi- 
sonne and porcelain makers of Japan. But only an infinitesi- 
mal part of the total population has thus far profited largely by 
this wider market. Where one man amasses wealth in this 
way, 100,000 men find that aggressive foreign traders exploit 
their wares by flooding the shops with tempting articles which 
they can ill-afford to buy. The difficulty is rapidly becoming 
acute. My inquiries in Japan led me to the conclusion that 



The Economic Revolution in Asia 119 

while the cost of the staple articles of living has increased 
nearly 100 per cent, in the last twenty years, the financial abil- 
ity of the average Japanese has not increased thirty per cent. 
In China, Siam, India, the Philippine Islands, and Syria I 
found substantially similar anxieties though the proportions 
naturally varied. ' "True, there has been commerce since the 
early ages, but caravans could afford to carry only precious 
goods, like fine fabrics, spices and gems. These luxuries did 
not reach the multitude, and could not materially change en- 
vironment. But modern commerce scatters over all the world 
the products of every climate, in ever increasing quantities." 
/ So the economic revolution in Asia is characterized, as such 
revolutions usually are in Europe and America, by wide-spread 
unrest and, in some places, by violence. The oldest of conti- 
nents is the latest to undergo the throes of the stupendous 
transformation from which the newest is slowly beginning to 
emerge. The transition period in Asia will be longer and per- 
haps more trying, as the numbers involved are vaster and more 
conservative ; but the ultimate result cannot fail to be beneficial 
both to Asia and to the whole world. 

It is therefore too late to discuss the question whether the 
character and religions of these nations should be disturbed. 
They have already been disturbed by the inrush of new ideas 
and by the Avays as well as by the products of the white man. 
Like their ancient temples, the religions of Asia are cracking 
from pinnacle to foundation. The natives themselves realize 
that the old days are passing forever. India is in a ferment. 
Japan has leaped to world prominence. The power of the 
Mahdi has been broken and the Soudan has been opened to 
civilization. The King of Siam has made Sunday a legal holi- 
day and is frightening his conservative subjects by his revolu- 
tionary changes, while Korea is changing with kaleidoscopic 
rapidity. 

Whereas the opening years of the sixteenth century saw the 
struggle for civilization, of the seventeenth century for religious 



120 New Forces in Old China 

liberty, of the eighteenth century for constitutional govern- 
ment, of the nineteenth century for political freedom, the 
opening years of the twentieth century witness what Lowell 
would have called : — 

" One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt 
Old systems and the word." 



X 

FOREIGN TRADE AND FOREIGN VICES 

1^ ■ ^HE influences that are thus surging into the Middle 
I Kingdom are tremendous. The beginnings of China's 
■ foreign trade date back to the third century, though 
it was not until comparatively recent years that it grew to large 
proportions. To-day the leading seaports of China have many 
great business houses handling vast quantities of European and 
American goods. The most persistent effort is made to extend 
commerce with the Chinese. That the effort is successful is 
shown by the fact that the foreign trade of China increased 
from 217,183,960 taels in 1888 to 460,533,288 taels in 1900, 
and even this gain of more than a hundred per cent, does not 
express the whole truth, for it does not include the coastwise 
shipping or the considerable quantities of goods brought in by 
Chinese vessels which, though plying between native and for- 
eign ports, are not reported through the customs' service. ' Ac- 
cording to official reports,' the foreign trade of China has been 
growing rapidly during recent years, the only falling off having 
been in the Boxer outbreak year 1900. In 1891, the imports 
into China were, in round numbers, 134,000,000 taels and 
the exports were 101,000,000, a total of 235,000,000, and an 
excess of imports of 33 per cent. In 1903 the imports had 
advanced to 327,000,000 taels and the exports to 214,000,000 
taels, a total of 541,000,000 taels, an increase of 130 per cent, 
and an excess of imports of 53 per cent. In 1899 the total 
foreign trade of China had reached 460,000,000 taels. The 
next year it dropped to 370,000,000 taels, but in 1901 it sprang 

'"Returns of Trade for 1903," published by the Maritime Customs 
Department of China. 

121 



122 New Forces in Old China 

to 438,000,000 taels, and has advanced another 100,000,000 
taels within the past two years. ^ 

The share of the United States is larger than one might infer 
from the reports, as no inconsiderable part of our trade goes to 
China by way of England and Hongkong and is often credited to 
the British total instead of to ours. American trade has, more- 
over, rapidly increased since 1900. We now sell more cotton 
goods to China than to all other countries combined, the ex- 
ports having increased from 1^5,195,845 in 1898 to ^16,048,485 
in 1902. In the same year, 45,287,807 gallons of kerosene 
oil valued at ^2,500,000 were shipped from the United States 
to China. The development of the flour trade has been extra- 
ordinary, the sales having risen from ^89,305 in 1898 to 
1^4,676, 491 in the first ten months of 1903. 

In Hongkong, I found American flour controlling the 
market. I learned on inquiry that years before, a firm in 
Portland, Oregon, had sent an agent to introduce its flour. 
The rice-eating Chinese did not want it, but the agent stayed, 
gave away samples, explained its use and pushed his goods so 
energetically and persistently that after years of labour and the 
"expenditure of tens of thousands of dollars a market was cre- 
ated. Now that firm sells in such enormous quantities that its 
numerous mills must run day and night to supply the demand, 
and the annual profits run into six figures. That city of Port- 
land alone exported to Asia, chiefly China, in 1903 : — 

849,360 barrels flour ^2,974,620 

522,887 bushels wheat 413,901 

46,847,975 feet lumber 647,355 

Miscellaneous merchandise 352,879 

Total ^4,414,651 

While cotton goods, kerosene oil and flour are our chief ex- 
ports to China, there is a growing demand for many other 

' " Returns of Trade for 1903," published by the Maritime Customs De- 
partment of China. 



Foreign Trade and Foreign Vices 123 

American products. The utility of the American locomotive 
has become so apparent that in 1899, engines costing ^732,212 
were sent to China and additional orders are received every 
few months. With the enormous forests bordering the Pacific 
Ocean in the states of Oregon and Washington, and with the 
development of cheap water transportation, there is a rapidly 
widening market in China for American lumber. Eastern Asia 
is too densely peopled to have large forests, and those she has 
are not within easy reach. Native lumber, therefore, is scarce 
and often small and crooked. That in common use comes 
from Manchuria and Korea. I was impressed in Tsing-tau to 
find that the Germans are using Oregon lumber and to be told 
that it is considered the best, and in the long run, the cheapest. 
Oregon pine costs more than the Korean and Manchurian, but 
it is superior in size and quality. The transportation charges 
to the interior, however, are a heavy addition. Manchurian 
pine can be delivered at such an interior city as Wei-hsien, via 
the junk port of Yang-chia-ko and thence by land, for twenty 
dollars, gold, per thousand square feet, which is considerably 
less than the Tsing-tau retail price for Asiatic lumber. Oregon 
lumber costs in Shanghai, thirty-two dollars gold, per thousand, 
but an importer estimated that it could be delivered at Tsing- 
tau for twenty-five dollars gold per thousand in large quantities. 

The exports of the United States to China, according to the 
reports of Consul-General Goodnow of Shanghai, increased 
from ^11,081,146 in 1900 to ;^i8,i75,484 in 1901 and $22,- 
698,282 in 1902, while for 1903 they reached the total of over 
$27,000,000, a gain of nearly 250 per cent, since 1900 and of 
600 per cent, as compared with 1893. 

Meantime, the United States imported from China goods to 
the value of $27,189,283 in 1902, which is an increase of $10, - 
572,995 over the imports for 1901. Silk and tea are the prin- 
cipal items in this trade, the figures for the former being $10,- 
643,950 and for the latter $7,447,822, though of goatskins we 
took $2,127,267, wool $2,039,895, and matting $1,303,881. 



124 New Forces in Old China 

The United States is now the third nation in trade relations 
with China. This is the more remarkable when we consider 
the statement of the late Mr. Everett Frazar of the American 
Asiatic Association that in January, 1901, there were only four 
American business firms in all China. When our business men 
establish their own houses in China instead of dealing as now 
through European and Chinese firms, it is not unreasonable to 
expect that the United States will outstrip its larger rivals Great 
Britain and France, though, as I have already intimated, it is 
one thing to ship foreign goods to China and quite another 
thing to control them after their arrival, for the Chinese are 
disposed to manage that trade themselves and they know how 
to do it. 

Unfortunately the stream of foreign trade with China has 
been contaminated by many of the vices which disgrace our 
civilization. ' The pioneer traders were, as a rule, pirates and 
adventurers, who cheated and abused the Chinese most fla- 
grantly. Gorst says that "rapine, murder and a constant ap- 
peal to force chiefly characterized the commencement of Eu- 
rope's commercial intercourse with China." There are many 
men of high character engaged in business in the great cities 
of China. I would not speak any disparaging word of those 
who are worthy of all respect. But it is all too evident that 
"many Americans and Europeans doing business in Asia are 
living the life of the prodigal son who has not yet come to him- 
self." Profane, intemperate, immoral, not living among the 
Chinese, but segregating themselves in foreign communities in 
the treaty ports, not speaking the Chinese language, frequently 
beating and cursing those who are in their employ, regarding 
the Chinese with hatred and contempt, — it is no wonder that 
they are hated in return and that their conduct has_done much 
to justify the Chinese distrust of the foreigner. ' The foreign 
settlements in the port cities of China are notorious for their 
profligacy. Intemperance and immorality, gambling and Sab- 
bath desecration run riot. When after his return from a long 



Foreign Trade and Foreign Vices 125 

journey in Asia, the Rev. Dr. George Pentecost was asked — 
"What are the darkest spots in the missionary outlook?" he 
replied : — 

" In lands of spiritual darkness, it is difficult to speak of ' darkest 
spots.' I should say, however, that if there is a darkness more dark 
than other darkness, it is that which is cast into heathen darkness 
by the ungodliness of the American and European communities that 
have invaded the East for the sake of trade and empire. The corruption 
of Western godliness is the worst evil in the East. Of course there are 
noble exceptions among western commercial men and their families, but 
as a rule the European and American resident in the East is a constant 
contradiction to all and everything which the missionary stands iox.^^^^^ 

Most of the criticisms of missionaries which find their way 
into the daily papers emanate from such men. The mission- 
aries do not gamble or drink whiskey, nor will their wives and 
daughters attend or reciprocate entertainments at which wine, 
cards and dancing are the chief features. So, of course, the 
missionaries are "canting hypocrites," and are believed to be 
doing no good, because the foreigner who has never visited a 
Chinese Christian Church, school or hospital in his life, does 
not see the evidences of missionary work in his immediate 
neighbourhood. The editor of the Japan Daily Mail justly 
says : — ' 

" We do not suggest that these newspapers which denounce the mis- 
sionaries so vehemently desire to be unjust or have any suspicion that they 
are unjust. But we do assert that they have manifestly taken on the colour 
of that section of every far eastern community whose units, for some 
strange reason, entertain an inveterate prejudice against the missionary 
and his works. Were it possible for these persons to give an intelligent 
explanation of the dislike with which the missionary inspires them, their 
opinions would command more respect. But they have never succeeded 
in making any logical presentment of their case, and no choice offers ex- 
cept to regard them as the victims of an antipathy which has no basis in 
reason or reflection. That a man should be anti-Christian and should de- 

' April 7, 1901, 



126 New Forces in Old China 

vote his pen to propagating his views is strictly within his right, and we 
must not be understood as suggesting that the smallest reproach attaches 
to such a person. But on the other hand, it is within the right of the 
missionary to protest against being arraigned before judges habitually hos- 
tile to him, and it is within the right of the public to scrutinize the pro- 
nouncements of such judges with much suspicion." 

Charles Darwin did not hesitate to put the matter more 
bluntly still. He will surely not be deemed a prejudiced wit- 
ness, but he plainly said of the traders and travellers who at- 
tack missionaries : — 

" It is useless to argue against such reasoners. I believe that, disap- 
pointed in not finding the field of licentiousness quite so open as for- 
merly, they will not give credit to a morality which they do not wish to 
practice, or to a religion which they undervalue or despise." 

These facts are a suggestive commentary on the popular notion 
that civilization should precede Christianity. The Rev. Dr. 
James Stewart, the veteran missionary of South Africa, says that 
it is an " unpleasant and startling statement, unfortunately 
true, that contact with European nations seems always to have 
resulted in further deterioration of the African races. . . . 
Trade and commerce have been on the West Coast of Africa 
for more than three centuries. What have they made of that 
region ? Some of its tribes are more hopeless, more sunken 
morally and socially, and rapidly becoming more commercially 
valueless, than any tribes that may be found throughout the 
whole of the continent. Mere commercial influence by its ex- 
ample or its teaching during all that time has had little effect 
on the cruelty and reckless shedding of blood and the human 
sacrifices of the besotted paganism which still exists near that 
coast." Of his experience in New Guinea, James Chalmers 
declared : — "I have had twenty-one years' experience among 
natives. I have lived with the Christian native, and I have 
lived, and dined, and slept with cannibals. But I have never 



Foreign Tnule and Foreign Vices 127 

yet met with a single man or woman, or with a single people, 
that civilization without Christianity has civilized." 

Substantially similar statements might be made regarding 
other lands. 

" The more we open the world to what we call civilization, and Ihe more 
education we give it of the kind we call scientific, the greater are the 
dangers to modern society, unless in some way we contrive to make all 
the world better. Brigands armed with repeating rifles and supplied with 
smokeless gunpowder are brigands still, but ten limes more dangerous than 
before. The vaste hordes of human beings in Asia and Africa, so long as 
they ai"e left in seclusion, are dangerous to their immediate neighbours; 
but, when they have railroads, steamboats, tariffs, and machine guns, while 
they retain their savage ideals and barbarous customs, they become dan- 
gerous to all the rest of the world." ^ 

A Christless civilization is always and everywhere a curse 
rather than a blessing. From the Garden of Eden down, the 
fall of man has resulted from " the increase of knowledge and 
of power unaccompanied by reverence. . . . No evolu- 
tion is stable which neglects the moral factor or seeks to shake 
itself free from the eternal duties of obedience and of faith. 
. . The Song of Lamech echoes from a remote antiquity 
the savage truth that 'the first results of civilization are to 
equip hatred and render revenge more deadly, ... a 
savage exultation in the fresh power of vengeance which all the 
novel instruments have placed in their inventor's hands.' " ^ 

What is civilization without the gospel? The essential ele- 
ments of our civilization are the fruits of Christianity, and the 
tree cannot be transplanted without its roots. Can a railroad 
or a plow convert a man ? They can add to his material com- 
fort ; they can enlarge the opportunities of the gospel, but are 
they the gospel itself? What does civilization without Chris- 
tianity mean ? It means the lust of the European and American 
soldiers which is rotting the native Hawaiians, the European and 

' Christian Register, December 3, 1 903. 

5 The Rev. Dr. George Adam Smith, D. D., " Yale Lectures," pp. 95-97. 



128 New Forces in Old China 

American liquor which is debauching the Africans, the opium 
which is enervating the Chinese, 6,000 tons a year coming from 
India at a profit of ^32,000,000 to the EngUsh Government.' 

How can such a civihzation prepare the way for Christianity ? 
As a matter of fact, the Chinese already have a civilization, 
and if our civilization is considered apart from its distinctively 
Christian elements, it is not so much superior to the Chinese 
as we are apt to imagine. The differences are chiefly matters 
of taste and education. The truth is that always and every- 
where, — 

" civilization, so far from obliterating iniquity, imports into the world in- 
iquities of its own. It changes to some degree the aspects of iniquity, but 
does not make them less. Further than that its effect is rather regularly 
to dress iniquity in a less repulsive and more attractive form, and in that 
way makes it more difficult to get rid of than before. There is no sin so 
insinuating as refined and elegant sin, and of that civilization is the ex- 
pert patron and champion. The sin that is the devil's chief stock in trade 
is not what is going on in Hester Street, but on the polite avenues. 
. . . Evangelization conducts to civilization, but civilization has no 
necessary bearing on evangelization ; that is to say, there is in civilization 
no energy inherently calculated to yield gospel facts. By carrying schools 
and arts, trade and manufacture, among people that are now savages you 
may be able to refine the quality of their deviltry, but that is not even 
the first step towards making angels, or even saints of them." 2 

Lowell is said to have administered the following stinging 
rebuke to the skeptical critics who sneered about missionaries 
and declared the adequacy of civilization without them : — 

" When the microscopic search of skepticism, which has hunted the 
heavens and sounded the seas to disprove the existence of a Creator, has 
turned its attention to human society and has found a place on this planet 
ten miles square where a decent man can live in decency, comfort and 
security, supporting and educating his children unspoiled and unpolluted ; 
a place where age is reverenced, manhood respected, womanhood hon- 
oured, and human life held in due regard; when skeptics can find such 

1 The Rev. Dr. Henry van Dyke, Sermon. 

2 The Rev. Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst, Sermon, 



Foreign Trade and Foreign Vices 129 

a place ten miles square on this globe where the gospel of Christ has 
not gone and cleared the way, and laid tlie foundation and made decency 
and security possible, it will tlien be in order for the skeptical literati 
to move thither and there ventilate their views." 

But we may add Darwin's conjecture that " should a voy- 
ager chance to be at the point of shipwreck on some unknown 
coast, he will devoutly pray that the lesson of the missionary 
may have extended thus far." Bishop Thoburn says that no 
nation without Christianity has ever advanced a step, and that 
while in Washington there are 6,000 models of plows invented 
by Americans, India is using the same plow as in the days of 
David and Solomon. But wherever Christ's gospel goes, true 
civilization appears. " A better soul will soon make better cir- 
cumstances ; but better circumstances will not necessarily make 
a better soul." * 

" We must be here to work, 
And men who work can only work for men, 
And not to work in vain must comprehend 
Humanity, and so work humanly. 
And raise men's bodies still by raising souls." 

* The Rev, Dr. James H. Snowden. 



XI 

THE BUILDING OF RAILWAYS' 



1 



"^HE extension of trade has naturally been accom- 
panied not only by the increase of foreign steamship 
lines to the numerous port cities of China, but by the 
development of almost innumerable coastwise and river vessels. 
Many of these are owned and operated by the Chinese them- 
selves, but as steamers came with the foreigners and as they 
drive out the native junks and bring beggary to their owners, 
the masses of the Chinese cannot be expected to feel kindly 
towards such competition, however desirable the steamer may 
appear to be from the view-point of a more disinterested ob- 
server. But this interference with native customs has been far 
less revolutionary than that of the railways. 

The pressure of foreign commerce upon China has naturally 
resulted in demands for concessions to build railways, in order 
that the country might be opened up for traffic and the products 
of the interior be more easily and quickly brought to the coast. 
The first railroad in China was built by British promoters in 
1876. It ran from Shanghai to Wu-sung, only fourteen miles. 
Great was the excitement of the populace, and no sooner was 
it completed than the Government bought it, tore up the road- 
bed, and dumped the engines into the river. That ended 
railway-building till 1881, when, largely through the influence 
of Wu Ting-fang, late Chinese Minister to the United States, 
the Chinese themselves, under the guidance of an English 
engineer, built a little Hne from the Kai-ping coal mines to 
Taku, at the mouth of the Pei-ho River and the ocean gate- 

1 Part of this chapter appeared as an article in the American Monthly 
Review of Reviews, February, 1904. 

130 




THE CHINESE CART 




THE OLD AND THE NEW 
A cart, a carrier, and a locomotive at Paoting-fii 



The Building of Railways 131 

way to the capital. Seeing the benefit of this road, the Chinese 
raised further funds, borrowed more from the English, and 
gradually extended it 144 miles to Shan-hai Kwan on the 
north, while they ran another line to Tien-tsin, twenty-seven 
miles from Tong-ku, and thence onward seventy-nine miles 
direct to Peking. This system forms the Imperial Railway and 
belongs to the Chinese Government, though bonds are held by 
the English, who loaned money for construction, and though 
English and American engineers built and superintended the 
system. The local staff, however, is Chinese. 

No more concessions were granted to foreigners till 1895, 
but then they were given so rapidly that, (in 1899 when the 
Boxer Society first began to attract attention, there were, in- 
cluding the Imperial Railway, not only 566 miles in operation, 
but 6,000 miles were projected, and engineers were surveying 
rights of way through whole provinces. Much of the com- 
pleted work was undone during the destructive madness of the 
Boxer uprising, but reconstruction began as soon as the tumult 
was quelled. According to the Archivfur Eisenbahnwesen of 
Germany, the total length of the railways in use in 1903 in 
China was 1,236 kilometers or about 742 miles. 

Several foreign nations have taken an aggressive part in this 
movement. In the north, Russia, not satisfied with a terminus 
at cold Vladivostok where ice closes the harbour nearly half 
the year, steadily demanded concessions which would enable 
her Trans-Siberian Railway to reach an ice-free winter port, 
and thus give her a commanding position in the Pacific and a 
channel through which the trade of northern Asia might reach 
and enrich Russia's vast possessions in Siberia and Europe. 
So Russian diplomacy rested not till it had secured the right to 
extend the Trans-Siberian Railway southward from Sungari 
through Manchuria to Tachi-chao near Mukden. From there 
one branch runs southward to Port Arthur and Dalny and 
another southwestward to Shan-hai Kwan, where the great 
Wall of China touches the sea. As connection is made at that 



132 New Forces in Old China 

point with the Imperial Railway to Taku, Tien-tsin and Peking, 
Moscow 5,746 miles away, is brought within seventeen days of 
Peking. Thus, Russian influence had an almost unrestricted 
entrance to China on the North, while a third branch from 
Mukden to Wiju, on the Korean frontier, will connect with a 
projected line running from that point southward to Seoul, the 
capital of Korea. A St. Petersburg dispatch, dated November 
26, 1903, states that a survey has just been completed from 
Kiakhta, Siberia, to Peking by way of Gugon, a distance of 
about a thousand miles. This road, if built, will give the Rus- 
sians a short cut direct to the capital. 

In the populous province of Shantung, a German railroad, 
opened April 8, 1901, runs from Tsing-tau on Kiao-chou Bay 
into the heart of the populous Shantung Province via Wei- 
hsien. The line already reaches the capital, Chinan-fu, while 
ulterior plans include a line from Tsing-tau via Ichou-fu to 
Chinan-fu, so that German lines will ere long completely en- 
circle this mighty Province. At Chinan-fu, this road will meet 
another great trunk line, partly German and partly English, 
which is being pushed southward from Tien-tsin to Chin-kiang. 
An English sydicate, known as the British- Chinese Corpora- 
tion, is to control a route from Shanghai via Soochow and 
Chin-kiang to Nanking and Soochow via Hangchow to Ningpo, 
while the Anglo-Chinese Railway Syndicate of London is said 
to be planning a railway from Canton to Cheng-tu-fu, the pro- 
vincial capital of Sze-chuen. Meanwhile, the original line from 
Shanghai to Wu-sung has been reconstructed by the English. 

One of the most valuable concessions in China has been ob- 
tained by the Anglo-Italian Syndicate in the Provinces of 
Shan-si and Shen-si for it gives the right to construct railways 
and to operate coal mines in a region where some of the most 
extensive anthracite deposits in the world are located. A be- 
ginning has already been made, and when the lines are com- 
pleted, the industrial revolution in China will be mightily ad- 
vanced. 



The Building of Railways 133 

An alleged Belgian syndicate, to which was formed with then 
wholly disinterested assistance of the French and Russian lega- 
tions, obtained in 1896 a concession to construct the Lu Han 
Railway from Peking 750 miles southward to Hankow, the 
commercial metropolis on the middle Yang-tze River. It is sig- 
nificant, however, that while the Belgian sydicate was terapo- 
arily embarrassed, the Russo-Chinese Bank of Peking aided 
the Chinese Director -General of Railways to begin the section 
running from Peking to Paoting-fu. The road is already in 
operation as far as Shunte-fu, 300 miles from Peking, and the 
Russo-Chinese Bank has secured the right to build a branch 
line from Ching-ting via Tai-yuen-fu to Si-ngan-fu in Shen-si, 
where it will be well started on the beaten caravan route be- 
tween north China and Russian Central Asia. On Novem- 
ber 13, 1903, the Belgian International Eastern Company 
signed a contract to construct a railway from Kai-feng-fu, the 
capital of the Province of Honan, no miles west to 
Honan-fu. 

I found the line running south from Peking well-built with 
solid road-bed, massive stone culverts, iron bridges, and heavy 
steel rails. The first and second class coaches are not attract- 
ive in appearance, and though the fare for the former is double 
that of the latter, the chief discernible difference is that in the 
first-class compartment, which is usually in one end of a second- 
class car, the seats are curved and the passengers fewer in 
number, while in the second-class the seats are straight boards 
and are apt to be crowded with Chinese coolies. Neither class 
is upholstered and neither would be considered comfortable in 
America, but after the weeks I had spent in a mule-litter, any- 
thing on rails seemed luxurious. Our train was a mixed one, — 
the first-class compartments containing a few French officers, 
the second-class filled with Chinese coolies and French soldiers, 
while a half-dozen flat cars were loaded with horses and mules. 
A large Roger's locomotive from Paterson, New Jersey, drew 
our long train smoothly and easily, though the schedule was so 



134 New Forces in Old China 

slow and the stops so long that we were seven hours and a half 
in making a run of a hundred miles. 

Railway-building in South China, outside of French terri- 
tory, began with a line from Canton to Hankow which was pro- 
jected in 1895 by Senator Calvin S. Brice, William Barclay 
Parsons being the engineer. The usual governmental difficul- 
ties were encountered, but in 1902 an imperial decree gave the 
concession to the American-China Development Company. 
American capital will finance the road, though with some 
European aid. The company has the power, under its conces- 
sion, to issue fifty-year five per cent, gold bonds to the amount 
of ^42,500,000, the interest being guaranteed by the Chinese 
Government, The main line will be 700 miles long, and 
branches will increase the total mileage to 900. On November 
15, 1903, a section ten miles long from Canton to Fat-shanwas 
formally opened for traffic in the presence of the Hon. Francis 
May, colonial secretary and registrar-general of the Hongkong 
Government, a large number of Europeans and Americans, and 
immense crowds of Chinese who manifested their excitement by 
an almost incessant rattle of fire-crackers. The company ex- 
pected to have the line completed to Sam-shui, twenty miles 
beyond Fat-shan, by January 15, 1904. This is a branch 
line. The main line will run on the other side of the West 
River, and Mr. Willis E. Gray, the general manager and chief 
engineer, states that he will build from both ends at the rate of 
about 125 miles a year. A line from Kowloon to Canton has 
been planned for some time and it is likely to be hastened by 
the announcement in the South China Morning Post, May 1 2, 
1904, that an American-Chinese syndicate had obtained a con- 
cession, granted to the authorities of Macao by China through 
a special Portuguese Minister, to construct a railway from 
Macao to Canton. The syndicate hopes to secure American 
capital and the British merchants of Hongkong are a little 
nervous as they think of the possibility of an independent out- 
let for the Canton-Hankow Railway at Macao. 



The Building of Railways 135 

It will thus be seen that if these vast schemes can be real- 
ized there will not only be numerous lines running from the 
coast into the interior, but a great trunk line from Canton 
through the very heart of the Empire to Peking, where other 
roads can be taken not only to Manchuria and Korea but to 
any part of Europe. 

In the farther south, the French are equally busy. By the 
Franco- Chinese Convention of June 20, 1895, a French 
company secured the right to construct a railroad from Lao- 
kai to Yun-nan-fu. The French had a road from Hai-fong in 
Tong-king to Sang-chou at the Chinese frontier, and in 1896 
they obtained from China a concession to extend it to Nanning- 
fu, on the West River. This privilege has since been enlarged 
so that the line will be continued to the treaty port of Pak-hoi 
on the Gulf of Tong-king. The French fondly dream of the 
time when they can extend their Yun-nan Railway northward 
till it taps and makes tributary to French Indo-China the vast 
and fertile valley of the upper Yang-tze River. Meanwhile, 
the English talk of a line from Kowloon, opposite Hongkong, 
to Canton, and of connecting their Burma Railroad, which 
already runs from Rangoon to Kun-long ferry, with the 
Yang-tze valley, so that the enormous trade of southern interior 
China may not flow into a French port, as the French so 
ardently desire, but into an English city. 

It would be impossible to describe adequately the far- 
reaching effect upon China and the Chinese of this extension of 
modern railways. We have had an illustration of its meaning 
in America, where the transcontinental railroads resulted in 
the amazing development of our western plains and of the 
Pacific Coast. The effect of such a development in China can 
hardly be overestimated, for China has more than ten times the 
population of the trans-Mississippi region while its territory is 
vaster and equally rich in natural resources. As I travelled 
through the land, it seemed to me that almost the whole 
northern part of the Empire was composed of illimitable fields 



136 New Forces in Old China 

of wheat and millet, and that in the south the millions of paddy 
plots formed a rice-field of continental proportions. Hidden 
away in China's mountains and underlying her boundless 
plateaus are immense deposits of coal and iron ; while above 
any other country on the globe, China has the labour for the 
development of agriculture and manufacture. Think of the 
influence not only upon the Chinese but the whole world, 
when railroads not only carry the corn of Hunan to the famine 
sufferers in Shantung, but when they bring the coal, iron and 
other products of Chinese soil and industry within reach of 
steamship lines running to Europe and America. To make 
all these resources available to the rest of the world, and in turn 
to introduce among the 426,000,000 of the Chinese the prod- 
ucts and inventions of Europe and America, is to bring about 
an economic transformation of stupendous proportions. 

Imagine, too, what changes are involved in the substitu- 
tion of the locomotive for the coolie as a motive power, the 
freight car for the wheelbarrow in the shipment of produce, 
and the passenger coach for the cart and the mule-litter in the 
transportation of people. Railways will inevitably inaugurate 
in China a new era, and when a new era is inaugurated for 
one-third of the human race the other two-thirds are certain to 
be affected in many ways. 

J That the transformation is attended by outbreaks of violence 
is natural enough. Even such a people as the English and the 
Scotch were at first inimical to railroads, and it is notorious 
that the great Stephenson had to meet not only ridicule but 
strenuous opposition. Everybody knows, too, that in the 
United States stage companies and stage drivers did all they 
could to prevent the building of railroads, and that learned 
gentlemen made eloquent speeches which proved to the entire 
satisfaction of their authors that railways would disarrange all 
the conditions of society and business and bring untold evils 
in their train. If the alert and progressive Anglo-Saxon took 
this initial position, is it surprising that it should be taken with 



The Building of Railways 137 

far greater intensity by Orientals who for uncounted centuries 
have plodded along in perfect contentment, and who now find 
that the whole order of living to which they and their fathers 
have become adapted is being shaken to its foundation by the 
iron horse of the foreigner ? Millions of coolies earn a living 
by carrying merchandise in baskets or wheeling it in barrows 
at five cents a day. A single railroad train does the work of a 
thousand coolies, and thus deprives them of their means of 
support. Myriads of farmers grew the beans and peanuts out 
of which illuminating oil was made. But since American 
kerosene was introduced in 1864, its use has become well-nigh 
universal, and the families who depended upon the bean-oil and 
peanut-oil market are starving. Cotton clothing is generally 
worn in China, except by the better classes, and China 
formerly made her own cotton cloth. Now American manu- 
facturers can sell cotton in China cheaper than the Chinese can 
make it themselves. 

All this is, of course, inevitable. It is indeed for the best in- 
terests of the people of China themselves, but it enables us to 
understand why so many of the Chinese resent the introduction 
of foreign goods. That much of this business is passing into 
the hands of the Chinese themselves does not help the matter, 
for the people know that the goods are foreign, and that the 
foreigners are responsible for their introduction. 

Nor are racial prejudices and vested interests the only foes 
which the railway has to encounter in China. As we have 
seen, the Chinese, while not very religious, are very supersti- 
tious. ( They people the earth and air with spirits, who, in their 
judgment, have baleful power over man. Before these spirits 
they tremble in terror, and no inconsiderable part of their 
time and labour is devoted to outwitting them, for the Chinese 
do not worship the spirits, except to propitiate and deceive 
them. They believe that the spirits cannot turn a corner, but 
must move in a straight line. Accordingly, in China you do 
not often find one window opposite another window, lest the 



138 New Forces in Old China 

spirits may pass through. You will seldom find a straight 
road from one village to another village, but only a distract- 
ingly circuitous path, while the roads are not only crooked, but 
so atrociously bad that it is difificult for the foreign traveller to 
keep his temper. The Chinese do not count their own incon- 
venience if they can only baffle their demoniac foes. It is the 
custom of the Chinese to bury their dead wherever a geoman- 
cer indicates a " lucky " place. So particular are they about 
this that the bodies of the wealthy are often kept for a consid- 
erable period while a suitable place of interment is being 
found. In Canton there is a spacious enclosure where the 
coffins sometimes lie for years, each in a room more or less 
elaborate according to the taste or ability of the family. The 
place once chosen immediately becomes sacred. In a land 
which has been so densely populated for thousands of years, 
graves are therefore not only innumerable but omnipresent. 
In my travels in China, I was hardly ever out of sight of these 
conical mounds of the dead, and as a rule I could count hun- 
dreds of them from my shendza. 

Every visitor to Canton and Chefoo will recall the hilly 
regions just outside of the old city walls that are literally cov- 
ered with graves, those of the richer classes being marked by 
small stone or brick amphitheatres. Yet these are cemeteries 
not because they have been set apart for that purpose, but be- 
cause graves have gradually filled all available spaces. 

The Chinese reverence their dead and venerate the spots in 
which they lie. From a Chinese view-point it is an awful thing 
to desecrate them. Not only property and those sacred feel- 
ings with which all peoples regard their dead are involved but 
also the vital religious question of ancestral worship. Accord- 
ingly Chinese law protects all graves by heavy sanctions, im- 
posing the death penalty by strangling on the malefactor who 
opens a grave without the permission of the owner, and by de- 
capitation if in doing so the coffin is opened or broken so as 
to expose the body to view. Imagine then their feelings 



The Building of Railways 139 

when they see haughty foreigners run a railroad straight as an 
arrow from city to city, opening a highway over which the 
dreaded spirits may run, and ruthlessly tearing through the 
tombs hallowed by the most sacred associations. 

No degree of care can avoid the irritations caused by railway 
construction. In building the line from Tsing-tau to Kiao-chou, 
a distance of forty-six miles, the Germans, as far as practi- 
cable, ran around the places most thickly covered with graves. 
But in spite of this, no less than 3,000 graves had to be re- 
moved. It was impossible to settle with the individual owners, 
as it was difficult in many cases to ascertain who they were, 
most of the graves being unmarked, and some of the families 
concerned having died out or moved away. Moreover, the 
Oriental has no idea of time, and dearly loves to haggle, 
especially with a foreigner whom he feels no compunction in 
swindling. So the railway company made its negotiations 
with the local magistrates, showing them the routes, indicat- 
ing the graves that were in the way, and paying them an 
average of ^3 (Mexican) for removing each grave, they to 
find and settle with the owners. This was believed to be fair, 
for $3 is a large sum where the coin in common circulation 
is the copper "cash," so small in value that 1,600 of them 
equal a gold dollar, and where a few dozen cash will buy a 
day's food for an adult. But while some of the Chinese were 
glad to accept this arrangement, others were not. They wanted 
more, or they had special affection for the dead, or that par- 
ticular spot had been carefully selected because it was favoured 
by the spirits. Besides, the magistrates doubtless kept a part 
of the price as their share. Chinese officials are underpaid, 
are expected to "squeeze" commissions, and no funds can 
pass through their hands without a percentage of loss. Then, 
as the Asiatic is very deliberate, the company was obliged to 
specify a date by which all designated graves must be removed. 
As many of the bodies were not taken up within that time, 
the company had to remove them. 



140 New Forces in Old China 

In these circumstances, we should not be surprised that 
some of the most furiously anti-foreign feeling in China was in 
the villages along the line of that railroad. Why should the 
hated foreigner force his line through their country when the 
people did not want it ? Of course, it would save time, but, 
as an official naively said, " We are not in a hurry," So the 
villagers watched the construction with ill-concealed anger, 
and to-day that railroad, as well as most other railroads in 
North China, can only be kept open by detachments of foreign 
soldiers at all the important stations, I saw them at almost 
every stop, — German soldiers from Tsing-tau to Kiao-chou, 
British from Tong-ku to Peking, French from Peking to Pao- 
ting-fu, etc. 

Nevertheless, railways in China are usually profitable. It is 
true that the opposition to the building of a railroad is apt to 
be bitter, that mobs are occasionally destructive, and that loco- 
motives and other rolling stock rapidly deteriorate under native 
handling unless closely watched by foreign superintendents. 
But, on the other hand, the Government is usually forced to 
pay indemnities for losses resulting from violence. The road, 
too, once built, is in time appreciated by the thrifty Chinese, 
who swallow their prejudices and patronize it in such enormous 
numbers, and ship by it such quantities of their produce, that 
the business speedily becomes remunerative, while the popula- 
tion and the resources of the country are so great as to afford 
almost unlimited opportunity for the development of traffic. 

As a rule, on all the roads, the first-class compartments, 
when there are any, have comparatively few passengers, chiefly 
officials and foreigners. The second-class cars are well filled 
with respectable-looking people, who are apparently small mer- 
chants, students, minor officials, etc. The third-class cars, 
which are usually more numerous, are packed with chattering 
peasants. The first-class fares are about the same as ordinary 
rates in the United States. The second-class are about half 
the first-class rates, and the third-class are often less than the 



The Building of Railways 141 

equivalent of a cent a mile. This is a wise adjustment in a 
land where the average man is so thrifty and so poor that he 
would not and could not pay a price which would be deemed 
moderate in America, and where his scale of living makes him 
content with the rudest accommodations. Very little baggage 
is carried free, twenty pounds only on the German lines, so 
that excess baggage charges amount to more than in America. 
The freight cars, during my visit, were, for the most part, 
loaded with the materials and supplies necessitated by the work 
of railway-construction and by the extensive rebuilding of the 
native and foreign property which had been destroyed by the 
Boxers. But in normal conditions the railways carry inland a 
large number of foreign manufactured articles, and in turn 
bring to the ports the wheat, rice, peanuts, ore, coal, pelts, 
silk, wool, cotton, matting, paper, straw-braid, earthenware, 
sugar, tea, tobacco, fireworks, fruit, vegetables, and other 
products of the interior. Short hauls are the rule, thus far, 
both for passengers and freight. This is partly because the 
long-distance lines within the Empire are not yet completed, 
and partly because the typical Chinese of the lower classes in 
the interior provinces has never been a score of miles away from 
his native village in his life, and has been so accustomed to re- 
gard a wheelbarrow trip of a dozen miles as a long journey 
that he is a little cautious, at first, in lengthening his radius of 
movement. But he soon learns, especially as the struggle for 
existence in an overcrowded country begets a desire to take ad- 
vantage of an opportunity to better his condition elsewhere. 
Once fairly started, he is apt to go far, as the numbers of 
Chinese in Siam, the Philippines, and America clearly show. 
The literary and official classes are less apt to go abroad, but 
they are more accustomed to moving about within the limits 
of the Empire, as they must go to the central cities for their ex- 
aminations, and as offices are held for such short terms that 
magistrates are frequently shifted from province to province. 
When this vast population of naturally industrious and commer- 



142 New Forces In Old China 

cial people becomes accustomed to railways and gets to mov- 
ing freely upon them, stupendous things are likely to happen, 
both for China and for the world. 

And so the foreign syndicates relentlessly continue the work 
of railway-construction. Trade cannot be checked. It ad- 
vances by an inherent energy which it is futile to ignore. And 
it ought to advance for the result will inevitably be to the ad- 
vantage of China. A locomotive brings intellectual and phys- 
ical benefits, the appliances which mitigate the poverty and 
barrenness of existence and increase the ability to provide for 
the necessities and the comforts of life. In one of our great 
locomotive works in America I once saw twelve engines in con- 
struction for China, and my imagination kindled as I thought 
what a locomotive means amid that stagnant swarm of human- 
ity, how impossible it is that any village through which it has 
once run should continue to be what it was before, how its 
whistle puts to flight a whole brood of hoary superstitions and 
summons a long-slumbering people to new life. We need re- 
gret only that these benefits are so often accompanied by the 
evils which disgrace our civilization. 



PART III 

The Political Force and the National 
Protest 



XII 

THE AGGRESSIONS OF EUROPEAN POWERS 

THE political force was set in motion partly by the 
ambitions of European powers to extend their in- 
fluence in Asia, and partly by the necessity for pro- 
tecting the commercial interests referred to in the preceding 
chapters. The conservatism and exclusiveness of the Chinese, 
the disturbance of economic conditions caused by the introduc- 
tion of foreign goods, and the greed and brutality of foreign 
traders combined to arouse a fierce opposition to the lodgment 
of the foreigner. The early trading ships were usually armed, 
and exasperated by the haughtiness and duplicity of the Chi- 
nese officials and their greedy disposition to mulct the white 
trader, they did not hesitate to use force in effecting their pur- 
pose. 

But the nations of Europe, becoming more and more con- 
vinced of the magnitude of the Chinese market, pressed reso- 
lutely on ; and with the hope of creating a better understand- 
ing and of opening the ports to trade, they sent envoys to 
China. The arrival of these envoys precipitated a new con- 
troversy, for the Chinese Government from time immemorial 
considered itself the supreme government of the world, and, 
not being accustomed to receive the agents of other nations ex- 
cept as inferiors, was not disposed to accord the white man 
any different treatment. The result was a series of collisions 
followed by territorial aggressions that were numerous enough 
to infuriate a more peaceably disposed people than the 
Chinese. 

The Portuguese were the first to come, a ship of those ven- 

145 



146 New Forces in Old China 

turesome traders appearing near Canton in 15 16. Its recep- 
tion was kindly, but when the next year brought eight armed 
vessels and an envoy, the friendliness of the Chinese changed 
to suspicion which ripened into hostility when the Portuguese 
became overbearing and threatening. Violence met with 
violence. It is said that armed parties of Portuguese went into 
villages and carried off Chinese women. Feuds multiplied and 
became more bloody. At Ningpo, the Chinese made awful re- 
prisal by destroying thirty-five Portuguese ships and killing 800 
of their crews. The execution of one or more of the members 
of a delegation to Peking brought matters to a crisis, and in 
1534, the Portuguese transferred their factories to Macao, 
which they have ever since held, though it was not till 1887 
that their position there was officially recognized. Portuguese 
power has waned and Macao to-day is an unimportant place 
politically, but it is significant that this early foreign settlement 
in China has been and still is such a moral plague spot that 
the Chinese may be pardoned if their first impressions of the 
white man were unfavourable. 

The Spaniards were the next Europeans with whom the 
Chinese came into contact. In this case, however, the contact 
was due not so much to the coming of the Spaniards to China 
as to their occupation in 1543 of the Philippine Islands, with 
which the Chinese had long traded and where they had already 
settled in considerable numbers. Mutual jealousies resulted 
and Castilian arrogance and brutality ere long engendered such 
bitterness that massacre after massacre of the Chinese occurred, 
that of 1603 almost exterminating the Chinese population of 
Manila. 

The growing demand for coffee, which Europeans had first 
received in 1580 from Arabia, brought Dutch ships into Asiatic 
waters in 1598. After hostile experiences with the Portuguese 
at Macao, they seized the Pescadores Islands in 1622. But the 
opposition of the Chinese led the Dutch to withdraw to For- 
mosa, where their stormy relations with natives, Chinese from 



The Aggressions of European Powers 147 

the mainland and Japanese finally resulted in their expulsion in 
1662. Since then the Dutch have contented themselves with a 
few trading factories chiefly at Canton and with their possessions 
in Malaysia, so that they have been less aggressive in China 
than several other European nations. 

A more formidable power appeared on the scene in 1635, 
when four ships ' of the English East India Company sailed up 
the Pearl River. The temper of the newcomers was quickly 
shown when the Chinese, incited by the jealous Portuguese, 
sought to prevent their lodgment, for the English, so the record 
quaintly runs, " did on a sudden display their bloody ensigns, 
and . . . each ship began to play furiously upon the forts 
with their broadsides . . . put on board all their ord- 
nance, fired the council-house, and demolished all they could." 
Then they sailed on to Canton, and when their peremptory de- 
mand for trading privileges was met with evasion and excuses, 
they " pillaged and burned many vessels and villages . . 
spreading destruction with fire and sword." Describing this 
incident. Sir George Staunton, Secretary of the first British 
embassy to China, naively remarked — " The unfortunate cir- 
cumstances under which the English first got footing in China 
must have operated to their disadvantage and rendered their 
situation for some time peculiarly unpleasant." ^ But as early 
as 1684, they had established themselves in Canton. 

June 15, 1834, a British Commission headed by Lord Napier 
arrived at Macao, and the 25th of the same month proceeded 
to Canton empowered by an act of Parliament to negotiate 
with the Chinese regarding trade "to and from the dominions 
of the Emperor of China, and for the purpose of protecting and 
promoting such trade."' The government of Canton, how- 
ever, refused to receive Lord Napier's letter for the character- 

' Parker, " China," p. 9, places the number of ships at five and tlie date 
as 1637. 

' Foster, " American Diplomacy in the Orient," p. 5. 
3 Foster, p. 57. 



148 New Forces in Old China 

istic reason that it did not purport to be a petition from an in- 
ferior to a superior. In explaining the matter to the Hong 
merchants with a view to their bringing the explanation to the 
attention of Lord Napier, the haughty Governor reminded them 
that foreigners were allowed in China only as trading agents, 
and that no functionary of any political rank could be allowed 
to enter the Empire unless special permission were given by the 
Imperial Government in response to a respectful petition. He 
added : — 

"To sum up the whole matter, the nation has its laws. Even 
England has its laws. How much more the Celestial Empire ! How 
flaming bright are its great laws and ordinances. More terrible than 
the awful thunderbolts ! Under this whole bright heaven, none dares 
to disobey them. Under its shelter are the four seas. Subject to its 
soothing care are ten thousand kingdoms. The said barbarian eye (Lord 
Napier), having come over a sea of several myriads of miles in extent to 
examine and have superintendence of affairs, must be a man thoroughly 
acquainted with the principles of high dignity." * 

As might be expected, the equally haughty British represent- 
ative indignantly protested ; but without avail. He was asked 
to return to Macao, and was informed that the Governor could 
not have any further communication with him except through 
the Hong merchants, and in the form of a respectful petition. 
The Governor indignantly declared : — 

" There has never been such a thing as outside barbarians sending a 
letter. . . . It is contrary to everything of dignity and decorum. The 
thing is most decidedly impossible. . . . The barbarians of this na- 
tion (Great Britain) coming to or leaving Canton have beyond their trade 
not any public business ; and the commissioned officers of the Celestial 
Empire never take cognizance of the trivial affairs of trade. . . . The 
some hundreds of thousands of commercial duties yearly coming from the 
said nation concern not the Celestial Empire to the extent of a hair or a 
feather's down. The possession or absence of them is utterly unworthy 
of one careful thought." ^ 

1 Foster, p. 59, * Idid, p. 60. 



The Aggressions of European Powers 149 

Whereupon the proud Briton pubUshed and distributed a re- 
view of the case, as he saw it, which closed as follows : — 

" Governor Loo has the assurance to state in the edict of the 2d instant 
that ' the King (my master) has hitherto been reverently obedient.' I 
must now request you to declare to them (the Hong merchants) that His 
Majesty, the King of England, is a great and powerful monarch, that he 
rules over an extent of territory in the four quarters of the world more 
comprehensive in space and infinitely more so in power than the whole 
empire of China ; that he commands armies of bold and fierce soldiers, 
who have conquered wherever they went ; and that he is possessed of 
great ships, where no native of China has ever yet dared to show his face. 
Let the Governor then judge if such a monarch will be 'reverently obe- 
dient' to any one." ' 

The result of the increasing irritation was a decree by the 
Governor of Canton peremptorily forbidding all further trade 
with the English, and in retaliation the landing of a British 
force, the sailing of British war-ships up the river and a battle 
at the Bogue Forts which guarded the entrance of Canton, A 
truce was finally arranged and Lord Napier's commission left 
for Macao, August 21st, where he died September nth of an 
illness which his physician declared was directly due to the 
nervous strain and the many humiliations which he had suf- 
fered in his intercourse with the Chinese authorities. The 
Governor meantime complacently reported to Peking that he had 
driven off the barbarians ! 

The strain was intensified by the determination of the 
British to bring opium into China. The Chinese authorities 
protested and in 1839 the Chinese destroyed 22,299 chests 
of opium valued at ^9,000,000, from motives about as 
laudable as those which led our revolutionary sires to empty 
English tea into Boston Harbor. England responded by 
making war, the result of which was to force the drug upon an 
unwilling people, so that the vice which is to-day doing more 
to ruin the Chinese than all other vices combined is directly 
* Foster, pp. 6l, 62. 



150 New Forces in Old China 

traceable to the conduct of a Christian nation, though the 
England of to-day is presumably ashamed of this crime of the 
England of two generations ago. 

It would, however, be inaccurate to represent Chinese objec- 
tion to British opium as the sole cause of the " Opium War " 
of 1840, for the indignities to which foreign traders and foreign 
diplomats were continually subjected in their efforts to establish 
commercial and political relations with the Chinese were rap- 
idly drifting the two nations into war. Still, it was peculiarly 
unfortunate and it put foreigners grievously in the wrong be- 
fore the Chinese that the overt act which developed the long- 
gathering bitterness into open rupture was the righteous if ir- 
regular seizure by the Chinese of a poison that the English 
from motives of unscrupulous greed were determined to force . 
upon an unwilling people. The probability that war would 
have broken out in time even if there had been no dispute 
about opium does not mitigate the fact that from the beginning, 
foreign intercourse with China was so identified with an iniqui- 
tous traffic that the Chinese had ample cause to distrust and 
dislike the white man. 

This hostility was intensified when the war resulted in the 
defeat of the Chinese and the treaty of Nanking in 1842 with 
its repudiation of all their demands, the compulsory cession of 
the island of Hongkong, the opening of not only Canton but 
Amoy, Foochow, Shanghai, and Ningpo as treaty ports, the 
location of a British Consul in each port, and, most necessary 
but most humiliating of all, the recognition of the extra-terri- 
torial rights of all foreigners so that no matter what their crime, 
they could not be tried by Chinese courts but only by their 
own consuls. This treaty contributed so much to the opening 
of China that Dr. S. Wells Williams characterized it as "one 
of the turning points in the history of mankind, involving the 
welfare of all nations in its wide-reaching consequences." It 
was therefore a lasting benefit to China and to the world. But 
the Chinese did not then and do not yet appreciate the benefit, 




FRENCH MILITARY POST, SAIGON 




GERMAN SOLDIERS ON THE BUND, TIEN-TSIN 



The Aggressions of European Powers 151 

especially as they saw clearly enough that the motive of the 
comiueror was his own aggrandizement. 

Unhappily, too, the next war between England and China, 
tliough fundamentally due to the same conditions as the 
"Opium War," was again precipitated by a quarrel over 
opium, the lorcha Arrow loaded with the obnoxious drug and 
flying the British flag being seized by the Chinese. Once 
more they suflered sore defeat and humiliating terms of peace 
in the treaty of 1858. The refusal of the Peking Government 
to exchange the ratifications of the treaties caused a third war 
in i860 in which the British and French captured Peking, and 
by their excesses and cruelties still further added to the already 
long list of reasons why the Chinese should hate their European 
foes. 

Nor did foreign aggression stop with this war. In 1861, 
England, in order to protect her interests at Hongkong, wrested 
from China the adjacent peninsula of Kowloon. In 1886, she 
took Upper Burma, which China regarded as one of her de- 
pendencies. In 1898, finding that Hongkong was still within 
the range of modern cannon in Chinese waters seven miles 
away, England calmly took 400 square miles of additional terri- 
tory, including Mirs and Deep Bays. 

The visitor does not wonder that the British coveted Hong- 
kong, for it is one of the best harbours in the world. Certainly 
no other is more impressive. Noble hills, almost mountains, 
for many are over 1,000 feet and the highest is 3,200, rise on 
every side. Crafts of all kinds, from sampans and slipper- 
boats to ocean liners and war-ships, crowd the waters, for this 
is the third greatest port in the world, being exceeded in the 
amount of its tonnage only by Liverpool and New York. The 
city is very attractive from the water as it lies at the foot and 
on the slopes of the famous Peak. The Chinese are said to 
number, as in Shanghai, over 300,000, while the foreign popu- 
lation is only 5,000. But to the superficial observer the pro- 
portions appear reversed as the foreign buildings are so spa- 



152 New Forces in Old China 

clous and handsome that they almost fill the foreground. The 
business section of the city is hot and steaming, but an in- 
clined tramway makes the Peak accessible and many of the 
British merchants have built handsome villas on that cooler, 
breezier summit, 1,800 feet above the sea. The view is superb, 
a majestic panorama of mountains, harbour, shipping, islands, 
ocean and city. By its possession and fortification of this 
island of Hongkong, England to-day so completely controls 
the gateway to South China that the Chinese cannot get access 
to Canton, the largest city in the Empire, without running the 
gauntlet of British guns and mines which could easily sink any 
ships that the Peking Government could send against it, and 
the whole of the vast and populous basin of the Pearl or West 
River is at the mercy of the British whenever they care to take 
it. When we add to these invaluable holdings, the rights that 
England has acquired in the Yang-tze Valley and at Wei-hai 
Wei in Shantung, we do not wonder that Mr. E. H. Parker, 
formerly British Consul at Kiung-Chou, rather naively re- 
marks : — 

" In view of all this, no one will say, however much in matters of detail 
we may have erred in judgment, that Great Britain has failed to secure 
for herself, on the whole, a considerable number of miscellaneous com- 
mercial and political advantages from the facheuse situation arising out 
of an attitude on the part of the Chinese so hostile to progress." ' 

France, as far back as 1787, obtained the Peninsula of 
Tourane and the Island of Pulu Condore by "treaty" with 
the King of Cochin-China. The French soon began to regard 
Annam as within their sphere of influence. In 1858, they 
seized Saigon and from it as a base extended French power 
throughout Cochin-China and Cambodia, the treaty of 1862 
giving an enforced legal sanction to these extensive claims. 
Not content with this, France steadily pushed her conquests 
northward, compelling one concession after another until in 

I « China," pp. 95, 96. 



The Aggressions of European Powers 153 

1882, she coolly decided to annex Tong-king. The Chinese 
objected, but the war ended in a treaty, signed June 9, 1885, 
which gave France the coveted region. These vast regions, 
which China had for centuries regarded as tributary provinces, 
are now virtually French territory and are openly governed as 
such. 

The beginnings of Russia's designs upon China are lost in 
the haze of mediaeval antiquity. Russian imperial guards are 
frequently mentioned at the Mongol Court of Peking in the 
thirteenth century.' In 1652, the Russians definitely began 
their struggle with the Manchus for the Valley of the Amur, a 
struggle which in spite of temporary defeats and innumerable 
disputes Russia steadily and relentlessly continued until she 
obtained the Lower Amur in 1855, the Ussuri district in i860 
and finally, by the Cassini Convention of September, 1896, 
the right to extend the Siberian Railway from Nerchinsk 
through Manchuria. How Russia pressed her aggressions in 
this region we shall have occasion to note in a later chapter. 

» Parker, " China," p. 96. 



XIII 

THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 



I 



"^HE relations of the United States with China have, 
as a rule, been more sympathetic than those of 
European nations. Americans have not sought terri- 
torial advantage in China and on more than one occasion, our 
Government has exerted its influence in favour of peace and 
justice for the sorely beset Celestials. 

The flag of the United States first appeared in Chinese 
waters on a trading ship in 1785. From the beginning, Ameri- 
cans had less trouble with the Chinese than Europeans had 
experienced, partly because they had recently been at war with 
the English whom the Chinese hated and feared, and partly 
because they were less violently aggressive in dealing with the 
Chinese. By the treaties of July and October, 1844, the 
United States peacefully reaped the advantages which England 
had obtained at the cost of war. November 17, 1856, two 
American ships were fired ijpon by the Bogue Forts, but in 
spite of the hostilities which resulted, the representatives of the 
United States appeared to find more favour with the Chinese 
than those of any other power in the negotiations at Tien-tsin 
in 1858, and their treaty was signed a week before those of the 
French and the British. Article X provided that the " Unitqd 
States shall have the right to appoint consuls and other com- 
mercial agents, to reside at such places in the dominions of 
China as shall be agreed to be opened " ; and Article XXX 
that, 

"should at any time the Ta-Tsing Empire grant to any nation or the 
merchants or citizens of any nation any right, privileges or favour connected 



The United States and China 155 

with either navigation, commerce, political or other intercourse which is 
not conferred by this treaty, such right, privilege and favour shall at once 
freely inure to the benefit of the United Slates, its public officers, mer- 
chants and citizens." 

In the settlement of damages, the Chinese agreed to pay to 
the United States half a million taels, then worth ^735,288. 
When the adjustments with individual claimants left a balance 
of $453,400 in the treasury, Congress, to the unbounded and 
grateful surprise of the Chinese, gave it back to them. Mr. Bur- 
lingame, the celebrated United States Minister to China, be- 
came the most popular foreign minister in Peking within a 
short time after his arrival in 1862, and so highly did the 
Chinese Government appreciate his efforts in its behalf that 
during the American Civil War it promptly complied with his 
request to issue an edict forbidding all Confederate ships of 
war from entering Chinese ports. Mr. Foster declares that 
" such an order enforced by the governments of Europe would 
have saved the American commercial marine from destruction 
and shortened the Civil War." ' 

The treaty of Washington in 1868 gave great satisfaction to 
the Chinese Government as it contained pacific and apprecia- 
tive references to China, an express disclaimer of any designs 
upon the Empire and a willingness to admit Chinese to the 
United States. The treaty of 1880, however, considerably 
modified this willingness and the treaty of 1894 rather sharply 
restricted further immigration. But in the commercial treaty 
of 1880, the United States, at the request of the Chinese Gov- 
ernment, agreed to a clause peremptorily forbidding any citizen 
of the United States from engaging in the opium traffic with 
the Chinese or in any Chinese port. 

Our national policy was admirably expressed in the note sent 
by the Hon. Frederick F. Low, United States Minister at 
Peking, to the Tsung-li Yamen, March 20, 187 1 : — 

1 Foster, " American Diplomacy in the Orient," p. 259. 



ij6 



New Forces in Old China 



" To assure peace in the future, the people must be better informed of 
the purposes of foreigners. They must be taught that merchants are 
engaged in trade which cannot but be beneficial to both native and 
foreigner, and that missionaries seek only the welfare of the people, and 
are engaged in no political plots or intrigues against the Government. 
Whenever cases occur in which the missionaries overstep the bounds of 
decorum, or interfere in matters with which they have no proper concern, 
let each case be reported promptly to the Minister of the country to which 
it belongs. Such isolated instances should not produce prejudice or en- 
gender hatred against those who observe their obligations, nor should 
sweeping complaints be made against all on this account. Those from 
the United States sincerely desire the reformation of those whom they 
teach, and to do this they urge the examination of the Holy Scriptures, 
wherein the great doctrines of the present and a future state, and also the 
resurrection of the soul, are set forth, with the obligation of repentance, 
belief in the Saviour, and the duties of man to himself and others. It is 
owing, in a great degree, to the prevalence of a belief in the truth of 
the Scriptures that Western nations have attained their power and pros- 
perity. To enlighten the people is a duty which the officials owe to the 
people, to foreigners, and themselves ; for if, in consequence of ignorance, 
the people grow discontented, and insurrection and riots occur, and the 
lives and property of foreigners are destroyed or imperilled, the Govern- 
ment cannot escape its responsibility for these unlawful acts." 

Referring to this note, the Hon. J. C. B. Davis, acting 
Secretary of State, wrote to Mr. Low, October 19, 187 1 : — 

" The President regards it (your note to the Tsung-li Yamen) as wise 
and judicious. . . . Your prompt and able answer to these proposi- 
tions leaves little to be said by the Department. ; . . We stand upon 
our treaty rights ; we ask no more, we expect no less. If other nations 
demand more, if they advance pretensions inconsistent with the dignity 
of China as an independent Power, we are no parties to such acts. Our 
influence, so far as it may be legitimately and peacefully exerted, will be 
used to prevent such demands or pretensions, should there be serious rea- 
son to apprehend that they will be put forth. We feel that the Govern- 
nient of the Emperor is actuated by friendly feelings towards the United 
States." 

But while the Government of the United States has been 
thus considerate and just in its dealings with the Chinese in 



The United States and China 157 

China, it has, singularly enough, been most inconsiderate and 
unjust in its treatment of Chinese in its own territory, and its 
policy in this respect has done not a little to exasperate the 
Chinese. The Chinese began to come to America in 1848, 
when two men and one woman arrived in San Francisco on 
the brig Eagle. The discovery of gold soon brought multi- 
tudes, the year 1852 alone seeing 2,026 arrivals. There are 
now about 70,000 Chinese in California and 12,000 in Oregon 
and Washington. New York has about 10,000 Chinese, Phila- 
delphia 5, 000, Boston 800, and many other cities have little 
groups, while individual Chinese are scattered all over the 
country, though the total for the United States hardly exceeds 
100,000. 

The attitude of the people of the Pacific coast towards the 
the Chinese is an interesting study. At first, they welcomed 
their Oriental visitors. In January, 1853, the Hon. H. H. 
Haight, afterwards Governor of California, offered at a repre- 
sentative meeting of San Francisco citizens this resolution — 
" Resolved that we regard with pleasure the presence of greater 
numbers of these people (Chinese) among us as affording the 
best opportunity of doing them good and through them of 
exerting our influence in their native land." And this resolu- 
tion was unanimously adopted. Moreover in a new country, 
where there was much manual labour to be done in developing 
resources and constructing railways, and where there were 
comparatively few white labourers, the Chinese speedily proved 
to be a valuable factor. They were frugal, patient, willing, 
industrious and cheap, and so the corporations in particular 
encouraged them to come. 

But as the number of immigrants increased, first dislike, 
then irritation and finally alarm developed, particularly among 
the working classes who found their means of livelihood 
threatened by the competition of cheaper labour. The news- 
papers began to give sensational accounts of the "yellow 
deluge" that might " swamp our institutions " and to enlarge 



158 New Forces in Old China 

upon the danger that white labourers would not come to Cali- 
fornia on account of the presence of Chinese. The ** sand 
lot orator " appeared with his frenized harangues and the 
political demagogue sought favour with the multitudes by- 
pandering to their passions. Race prejudice, moreover, must 
always be taken into account, especially when two races 
attempt to live together. The terms Jew and Gentile, Greek 
and barbarian, Roman and enemy are suggestive of the distrust 
with which one race usually regards another. Christianity 
has done much to moderate it, but it still exists, and let the 
resident of the North and East who remembers the recent race 
riots in Illinois and Ohio and New York think charitably of 
his brethren who are confronted by the Chinese problem in 
California. So May 6, 1882, Congress passed the Restric- 
tion Act, which, as amended July 5, 1884, and reenacted in 
1903, is now in force. 

There are thousands of high-minded Christian people who 
are unselfishly and lovingly toiling for the temporal and 
spiritual welfare of this Asiatic population in America. They 
rightly feel that the people of the United States have a special 
duty towards these Orientals, that the purifying power of 
Christianity can remove the dangers incident to their presence 
in our communities, and that if we treat them aright they will, 
on their return to China, mightily influence their countrymen. 
But the kindly efforts of these Christian people are unfortunately 
insufficient to offset the general policy of the American people 
as a whole, especially as that policy is embodied in a stern law 
that is most harshly enforced. 

Americans are apt to think of themselves as China's best 
friends and the facts stated show that there is some ground 
for the claim. But before we exalt ourselves overmuch, we 
might profitably read the correspondence between the Chinese 
Ministers at Washington and our Secretaries of State regarding 
the outrages upon Chinese in the United States. Many 
Chinese have suffered from mob violence in San Francisco and 



The United States and China 159 

Tacoma and other Pacific Coast cities almost as sorely as 
Americans have suffered in China. Some years ago, they 
were wantonly butchered in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and it 
was as difficult for the Chinese to get indemnity out of our 
Government as it was for the Powers to get indemnity out of 
China for the Boxer outrages. 

President Cleveland, in a message to Congress in 1885, felt 
obliged to make an allusion to this that was doubtless as humil- 
iating to him as it was to decent Americans everywhere. The 
Chinese Minister to the United States, in his presentation of 
the case to Secretary of State Bayard, " massed the evidence 
going to show that the massacre of the subjects of a friendly 
Power, residing in this country, was as unprovoked as it was 
brutal ; that the Governor and Prosecuting Attorney of the Terri- 
tory openly declared that no man could be punished for the 
crime, though the murderers attempted no concealment ; and 
that all the pretended judicial proceedings were a burlesque." 
All this Mr. Bayard was forced to admit. Indeed he did not 
hesitate to characterize the proceedings as "the wretched 
travesty of the forms of justice," nor did he conceal his 
"indignation at the bloody outrages and shocking wrongs in- 
flicted upon a body of your countrymen," and his mortification 
that " such a blot should have been cast upon the record of our 
Government." There was sarcastic significance in the cartoon 
of the Chicago Inter- Ocean representing a Chinese reading a 
daily paper one of whose columns was headed " Massacre of 
Americans in China," while the other column bore the heading, 
" Massacre of Chinese in America." Uncle Sam stands at his 
elbow and ejaculates, "Horrible, isn't it?" To which the 
Celestial blandly inquires, " Which ? " 

In the North American Review for March, 1904, Mr. 
Wong Kai Kah, an educated Chinese gentleman, plainly but 
courteously discusses this subject under the caption of " A 
Menace to America's Oriental Trade." He justly complains 
that though the exclusion law expressly exempts Chinese 



l6o New Forces in Old China 

merchants, students and travellers, yet as a matter of fact a 
Chinese gentleman is treated on his arrival as if he were a 
criminal and is " detained in the pen on the steamship wharf 
or imprisoned like a felon until the customs officials are 
satisfied." 

The Hon. Chester Holcombe, formerly Secretary of the 
American Legation at Peking and a member of the Chinese 
Immigration Commission of 1880, cites some ilUustrations of 
the harshness and unreasonableness of the exclusion law. -^ A 
Chinese merchant of San Francisco visited his native land and 
brought back a bride, only to find that she was forbidden to 
land on American soil. Another Chinese merchant and wife, 
of unquestioned standing in San Francisco, made a trip to 
China, and while there a child was born. On returning to 
their home in America, the sapient officials could interpose no 
objection to the readmission of the parents, but peremptorily 
refused to admit the three-months old baby, as, never having 
been in this country, it had no right to enter it ! Neither of 
these preposterous decisions could be charged to the stupidity 
or malice of the local officials, for both were appealed to the 
Secretary of the Treasury in Washington and were officially 
sustained by him as in accordance with the law, though in the 
latter case, the Secretary, then the Hon. Daniel Manning, in 
approving the action, had the courageous good sense to write : 
" Burn all this correspondence, let the poor little baby go 
ashore, and don't make a fool of yourself." 

Still more irritating and insulting, if that were possible, was 
the treatment of the Chinese exhibitors at the Louisiana Pur- 
chase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904. Our Government 
formally invited China to participate, sending a special 
commission to Peking to urge acceptance. China accepted in 
good faith, and then the Treasury Department in Washington 
drew up a series of regulations requiring 

^Article in The Outlook, April 23, 1904. 



The United States and China 161 

"that each exhibitor, upon arrival at any seaport in this country, should 
be photographed three times for purposes of identification, and should 
file a bond in the penal sum of ;?5,ooo, the conditions of which were that 
he would proceed directly and by the shortest route to St. Louis, would 
not leave the Exposition grounds at any time after his arrival there, and 
would depart for China by the first steamer sailing after the close of the 
Exposition. Thus a sort of Chinese rogues' gallery was to be established 
at each port, and the Fair grounds were to be made a prison pen for 
those who had come here as invited guests of the nation, whose 
presence and aid were needed to make the display a success. It is only 
just to add that, upon a most vigorous protest made against these courteous (?) 
regulations by the Chinese Government and a threat to cancel their accept- 
ance of our invitation, the rules were withdrawn and others more decent 
substituted. But the fact that they were prepared and seriously presented 
to China shows to what an extent of injustice and discourtesy our mis- 
taken attitude and action in regard to Chinese immigration has carried 
us." 

No right-minded American can read without poignant shame, 
Luella Miner's recent account ' of the experiences of Fay Chi 
Ho and Kung Hsiang Hsi, two Chinese students who, after 
showing magnificent devotion to American missionaries during 
the horrors of the Boxer massacres, sought to enter the United 
States. They were young men of education and Christian 
character who wished to complete their education at Oberhn 
College, but they were treated by the United States officials at 
San Francisco and other cities with a suspicion and brutality 
that were " more worthy of Turkey than of free Christian 
America." Arriving at the Golden Gate, September 12, 1901, 
it was not until January 10, 1903, that they succeeded in 
reaching Oberlin, and those sixteen months were filled with in- 
dignities from which all the efforts of influential friends and of 
the Chinese Minister to the United States were unable to pro- 
tect them. Whatever reasons there may be for excluding 
coolie labourers, there can be none for excluding the bright 
young men who come here to study. " An open door for our 

1 " Two Heroes of Cathay," p. 223 sq. 



l62 New Forces in Old China 

merchants, our railway projectors, our missionaries, we cry, 
and at the same time we slam the door in the faces of Chinese 
merchants and travellers and students — the best classes who 
seek our shores." 

The fear that the Chinese would inundate the United States 
if they were permitted to come under the same conditions as 
Europeans is not justified by the numbers that came before the 
exclusion laws became so stringent, the total Chinese popula- 
tion of the United States up to 1880, when there was no ob- 
stacle to their coming except the general immigration law, be- 
ing only 105,465 — the merest handful among our scores of 
millions of people. The objections that they are addicted to 
gambling and immorality, that they come only for temporary 
mercenary purposes and that they do not become members of 
the body politic but segregate themselves in special com- 
munities, might be urged with equal justice by the Chinese 
against the foreign communities in the port cities of China. 
Segregating themselves, indeed ! How can the Chinese help 
themselves, when they are not allowed to become naturaUzed 
and are treated with a dislike and contempt which force them 
back upon one another ? 

As for the charge that they teach the opium habit to white 
boys and girls, it may be safely affirmed that all the Americans 
who have acquired that dread habit from the Chinese are not 
equal to a tenth of the number of Chinese women and girls 
who have been given foul diseases by white men in China. 
Mr. Holcombe declares : — 

" Our unfair treatment of China in this business will some day return 
to plague us. Entirely aside from the cavalier and insulting manner with 
which we have dealt with China, and the inevitably injurious effect upon 
our relations and interests there, it must be said that our action has been 
undignified, unworthy of any great nation, a sad criticism upon our sense 
of power and ability to rule our affairs vi^ith wisdom and moderation, and 
unbecoming our high position among the leading governments of the 
world. . . . We have treated Chinese immigrants — never more than 



The United States and China 163 

a handful when compared with our pojiulation — as though vvc were in a 
frenzy of fear of them. We have forsaken our wits in this question, 
abandoned all self-control, and belittled our manhood by treating each 
incoming Chinaman as though he were the embodiment of some huge and 
hideous power which, once landed upon our shores, could not be dealt 
with or kept within bounds. Yet in point of fact he is far more easily 
kept in bounds and held obedient to law than some immigrants from Eu- 
rope. ... It must be admitted as beyond question that the coming 
of the Chinese to these shores should be held under constant supervision 
and strict limitations. And so should immigration from all other coun- 
tries. The time has come when we ought to pick and choose with far 
greater care than is exercised, and to exclude large numbers who are now 
admitted. . . . It is this discrimination alone which is unjust to 
China, which she naturally resents, and which does us serious harm in our 
relations with her people." 

Commenting on the regulations promulgated by the Secre- 
tary of Commerce and Labour, July 27, 1903, regarding the 
admission of Chinese, the Hon. David J. Brewer, Associate 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, declared ; — 

" Can anything be more harsh and arbitrary ? Coming into a port of 
the United States, as these petitioners did into the port of Malone, placed 
as they were in a house of detention, shut off from communication with 
friends and counsel, examined before an inspector with no one to advise or 
counsel, only such witnesses present as the inspector may designate, and 
upon an adverse decision compelled to give notice of appeal within two 
days, within three days the transcript forwarded to the Commissioner- 
General, and nothing to be considered by him except the testimony ob- 
tained in this star chamber proceeding. This is called due process of 
law to protect the rights of an American citizen, and sufficient to prevent 
inquiry in the courts. . . . 

" Must an American citizen, seeking to return to this his native land, be 
compelled to bring with him two witnesses to prove the place of his birth 
or else be denied his right to return, and all opportunity of establishing 
his citizenship in the courts of his country ? No such rule is enforced 
against an American citizen of Anglo-Saxon descent, and if this be, as 
claimed, a government of laws and not of men, I do not think it should 
be enforced against American citizens of Chinese descent. . . . 

" Finally, let me say that the time has been when many young men 



164 



New Forces in Old China 



from China came to our educational institutions to pursue their studies 
when her commerce sought our shores and her people came to build our 
railroads, and when China looked upon this country as her best friend. 
If all this be reversed and the most populous nation on earth becomes the 
great antagonist of this Republic, the careful student of history will recall 
the words of Scripture, ' they have sown the wind, and they shall reap 
the whirlwind,' and for cause of such antagonism need look no further 
than the treatment accorded during the last twenty years by this country 
to the people of that nation." 1 

Meanwhile, Mr. E. H. Parker rather sarcastically remarks : — 

" The United States have always been somewhat prone to pose as the good 
and disinterested friend of China, who does not sell opium or exercise any 
undue political influence. These claims to the exceptional status of an 
honest broker have been a little shaken by the sharp treatment of Chinese 
in the United States, Honolulu and Manila." ^ 

' Dissenting opinion in the case of the United States, Petitioner vs. 
Sing Tuck or King Do and thirty-one others, April 25, 1904. 
8 >' China," p. 105. 



XIV 

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS— TREATIES 

IN view of some of the facts presented in the two preced- 
ing chapters, it is not surprising that the efforts of foreign 
powers to establish diplomatic relations with the Chinese 
Government were rather tempestuous. A full account of the 
negotiations would require a separate volume. For two gener- 
ations, nation after nation sought to protect its growing interests 
in China and to secure recognition from the Chinese Govern- 
ment, only to be met by opposition that was sometimes courte- 
ous and sometimes sullen, but always inflexible until it was 
broken down by force. Each envoy on presenting his letters 
was politely told in substance that the Chinese official con- 
cerned was extremely busy, that to his deep regret it would not 
be possible to grant an immediate conference, but that as soon 
as possible he would have pleasure in selecting a " felicitous 
day " on which they could hold a " pleasant interview " ; * and 
when the envoys, worn out by the never-ending procrastination, 
finally gave up in disgust and announced their intention of re- 
turning home, the typical Chinese official blandly replied, as 
the notorious Yeh did to United States Minister Marshall in 
January, 1854, — "I avail myself of the occasion to present my 
compliments, and trust that, of late, your blessings have been 
increasingly tranquil." ^ 

Scores of European and American diplomatic agents had 
substantially the same experience. United States Minister 
Reed, in 1858, truly said that the replies of the Chinese to the 

' Foster, "American Diplomacy in the Orient," p. 205. 
' Foster, p. 213. 

165 



itrO New Forces in Old China 

memorials and letters of the foreign envoys were characterized 
by "the same unmeaning profession, the same dexterous 
sophistry; and, what is more material, the same passive re- 
sistance ', the same stolid refusal to yield any point of sub- 
stance. " ' 

Nor can it be denied that the Chinese had some ground for 
holding foreign nations at arms' length as long as they could, 
for with a few exceptions, prominent among whom were some 
American ministers, notably Mr. Burlingame, the foreign 
envoys were far from being tactful and conciliatory in their 
methods of approach to a proud and ancient people. Mr. 
Foster reminds us that in the negotiations which terminated in 
the treaty of 1858, 

"The British were pushing demands not insisted upon by the other 
Powers, and they could only be obtained by coercive measures. The re- 
ports in the Blue Books and the London newspapers show that Mr, Lay^ 
who personally conducted the negotiations for Lord Elgin, when he found 
the Chinese commissioners obdurate, was accustomed to raise his voice, 
charge them with having ' violated their pledged word,' and threaten 
them with Lord Elgin's displeasure and the march of the British troops to 
Peking. And when this failed to bring them to terms, a strong detach- 
ment of the British army was marched through Tien-tsin to strike terror 
into its officials and inhabitants. Lord Elgin in his diary records the cli- 
max of these demonstrations : ' I have not written for some days, but they 
have been busy ones. We went on fighting and bullying, and getting the 
poor commissioners to concede one point after another, till Friday the 
25th.' The next day the treaty was signed, and he closes the record as 
follows : ' Though I have been forced to act almost brutally, I am China's 
friend in all this.' There can be no doubt that notwithstanding the seem- 
ing paradox. Lord Elgin was thoroughly sincere in this declaration, and 
that his entire conduct was influenced by a high sense of duty and by 
what he regarded as the best interests of China." * 

But can we wonder that the Chinese were irritated and hu- 
miliated by the method adopted ? 

^ Foster, p. 236. 

2" American Diplomacy in the Orient," pp. 241, 242. 



Diplomatic Relations — Treaties 16/ 

That treaty of 1858 gave some notable advantages to for- 
eigners, for it conceded the riglits of foreign nations to send dip- 
lomatic representatives to Peking, the rights of foreigners to 
travel, trade, buy, sell and reside in an increasing number of 
places, and on the persistent initiative of the French envoy, 
powerfully supported by the famous Dr. S. Wells Williams, 
Christianity was especially recognized, and the protection, not 
only of missionaries but all Chinese converts to Christianity, 
was specifically guaranteed. Of course, by the famous " most 
favoured nation clause " any concession obtained by one country, 
was immediately claimed by all other countries. 

It was this treaty which included the famous Toleration 
Clause regarding Christian missions as follows : 

"The principles of the Christian religion, as professed by the Protestant 
and Roman Catholic churches, are recognized as teaching men to do good, 
and to do to others as they would have others do to them. Hereafter 
those who quietly profess and teach these doctrines shall not be harassed 
or persecuted on account of their faith. Any person, whether citizen of 
the United States or Chinese convert, who, according to these tenets, shall 
peaceably teach and practice the principles of Christianity shall in no case 
be interfered with or molested." 

The charge has been frequently made that this clause was 
smuggled into the treaty without the knowledge of the Chinese, 
so that the claims to recognition and protection which were 
subsequently based upon it rest upon an unfair foundation. It 
is indeed possible, as Dr. S. Wells Williams, the author, frankly 
admits^ "that if the Chinese had at all comprehended what 
was involved in these four toleration articles, they would never \/C 
have signed one of them." But perhaps the same thing might 
be said of most treaties that have been signed in Asia. The 
fact remains, however, that the articles referred to were not 
placed in them without the knowledge of the Chinese. Dr. 
Williams explicitly states that he and the Rev. Dr. W. A. P. 

'"The Life and Letters of Samuel Wells Williams, LL, D.," p. 271. 



l68 New Forces in Old China 

Martin, cajled upon the Chinese Commissioners and that 

" some of the articles of our draft were passed without objection, those re- 
lating to toleration (of Christianity in China) and the payment of claims 
were copied off to show the Commissioner, those permitting and regulat- 
ing visits to Peking were rejected, and others were amended, the colloquy 
being conducted with considerable animation and constant good humour 
on his part." ' 

In a letter written many years afterwards and dated New 
Haven, September 12, 1878, Dr. WiUiams states that the first 
draft of the Toleration Clauses was rejected by the Chinese 
Commissioners, as he believes at the instigation of the French 
Legation, because the clause recognized Protestant missions. 
Dr. Williams then states that as soon as he could, he drew up 
another form of the same article and laid it before the Chinese 
Imperial Commissioners. Rewrites : — 

" It was quite the same article as before, but they accepted it without 
any further discussion or alteration ; however, the word ' whoever ' in 
my English version was altered by Mr. Reed to ' any person, whether citi- 
zen of the United States, or Chinese convert, who ' — because he wished 
every part of the treaty to refer to United States citizens, and cared not 
very much whether it had a toleration article or not. I did care, and was 
thankful to God that it was inserted. It is the only treaty in existence 
which contains the royal law." 

In Dr. Williams' Journal for June 18, 1858, the following 
record appears : 

" I went to sleep last night with the impression that after such a reply 
from the Minister it would be vain to urge a new draft, but after a restless 
sleep I awoke to the idea of trying once more, this time saying nothing 
about foreign missionaries. The article was sketched as soon as I could 
write it and sent off by a messenger before breakfast ; it was a last 
chance, and every hope went with it for success. At half-past nine an 
answer came. Permission for Christians meeting for worship and the dis- 
tribution of books was erased, while the words open ports were inserted 

1" The Life and Letters of Samuel Wells Williams, LL. D.," p. 261. 



Diplomatic Relations — Treaties 169 

in such a connection that it was rendered illegal for any one, native or 
otherwise, to profess Christianity anywhere else. The design was merely 
to restrict missionaries to the ports, but the effect would be detrimental in 
the highest degree to natives. I decided at once to go to sec the Vis- 
count and try to settle the question with him personally. Chairs were 
called, whose bearers seemed to Martin and me an eternity in coming, but 
at last we reached the house where Captain Du Pont and his marines so 
unexpectedly turned up last Saturday. Our amendment was handed to 
Chang, who began to cavil at it, but he was promptly told that he must 
take it to the Commissioners for approval as it stood, since this was the 
form we were decided on. Our labour and anxiety were all repaid, and 
ended by his return in a few minutes announcing Kweilang's assent to 
the article as it now stands in the treaty." 

In order to settle this point beyond all possible doubt, I re- 
cently wrote to the Rev. Dr. AV. A. P. Martin, now in China, 
asking him to give me his recollection of the incident. He re- 
plied as follows : — 

" The charge that the toleration article was ' smuggled into the treaty 
of 1858' is so far from the truth that those who make it can be shown to 
be either superficial or uncandid. If it means that ' the Chinese did not 
know what they were agreeing to, I answer that they could have no 
excuse for ignorance. An edict granting toleration had been issued as 
early as 1845. This had been followed by more than ten years of mis- 
sionary work at the newly opened ports — quite sufficient to make them 
acquainted with the character of Protestant missions. Of Roman Catholic 
missions prior to the edict, they had centuries of experience. Moreover, 
during our negotiations at Tien-tsin, they had ample time for a fresh study 
of the subject, the draft of our treaty being under daily discussion for more 
than a week before it was signed. Nor was our draft the first to bring up 
the question of toleration. The Russian Treaty signed on June 13th (five 
days in advance of ours) contained one explicit provision for the tolera- 
tion of Christianity under the form of the Greek Church ; but it made no 
reference to Protestant or Roman Catholic. Not only was the American 
Treaty the first to give these a legal status, it gives the Chinese a sample 
of Christian teaching in the Golden Rule, which Dr. Williams inserted in 
the article expressly to show them what they were agreeing to. Never 
were negotiations more open and above board. In their earlier stages I 
gave a copy of my book on the Evidences of Christianity to Jushon, one of 
the deputies, who was so much pleased with it, that he became my friend 



lyo New Forces In Old China 

and greeted me warmly on my removal to Peking. That the Chinese 
Ministers had any conception of the new force they were admitting into 
their country, I do not assert ; but I hold strongly that this spiritual force 
is the only thing that can raise the Chinese people out of their present 
state of semi-barbarism. 

" W. A. P. Martin. 
" Wuchang, CJmia, February i8, igo4.'" 

It was not until 1861, that legations were established in 
Peking. But while this gave foreign nations a solid foothold 
at the capital, it did not by any means give them the recogni- 
tion that they demanded, for their intercourse with the court 
was still hedged about with innumerable exactions and indigni- 
ties. The Hon. Thomas Francis Wade, British Minister at 
Peking, in a long note to the Chinese Minister Wen Hsiang, 
dated June 18, 187 1, discussing the troubles that had arisen 
between the Chinese and foreigners, justly said : 

" It is quite impossible that China should ever attain to a just apprecia- 
tion of what foreign Powers expect of her, or that she should insure from 
foreign Powers what she conceives due to her, until she have honestly 
accepted the conditions of official intercourse which are the sole guaran- 
tees against international differences. The chief of these is an interchange 
of representatives. I do not say that it is a panacea for all evil ; but it is 
incontestable that without it wars would be of far more frequent recur- 
rence, and till China is represented in the West, I see no hope of our ever 
having done with the incessant recriminations and bickerings between the 
Yamen and foreign legations, by which the lives of diplomatic agents in 
Peking are made weary. If China is wi-onged, she must make herself 
heard ; and, on the other hand, if she would abstain from giving offense, 
she must learn what is passing in the world beyond her." 

The Chinese Government was slow in coming to this view, 
but western nations steadily persisted. One by one new con- 
cessions were wrung from the reluctant Chinese. Mr. E. H. 
Parker ^ has tabulated as follows the treaties of foreign powers 
with China from 1689 to 1898 : — 

'"China," pp. 113-I15. 



Diplomatic Relations — Treaties 



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XV 

RENEWED AGGRESSIONS 

NOT content with innumerable aggressions and ex- 
torted treaty concessions, Western nations boldly dis- 
cussed the dismemberment of China as certain to 
come, and authors and journalists disputed as to which country 
should possess the richest parts of the Empire whose impotence 
to defend itself was taken for granted. Chinese ministers in 
Europe and America reported these discussions to their supe- 
riors in Peking. The English papers in China republished 
some of the articles and added many effective ones of their 
own, so that speedily all the better-informed Chinese came to 
know that foreigners regarded China as "the carcass of the 
East." 

Nor was all this talk empty boasting. China saw that France 
was absorbing Siam and had designs on Syria ; that Britain was 
already lord of India and Egypt and the Straits Settlements ; 
that Germany was pressing her claims in Asiatic Turkey ; that 
Russia had absorbed Siberia and was striving to obtain control 
of Palestine, Persia and Korea ; and that Italy was trying to 
take Abyssinia. Moreover the Chinese perceived that of the 
numerous islands of the world, France had the Loyalty, Society, 
Marquesas, New Hebrides and New Caledonia groups, and 
claimed the Taumotu or Low Archipelago ; that Great Britain 
had the Fiji, Cook, Gilbert, Ellice, Phoenix, Tokelan and New 
Zealand groups, with northern Borneo, Tasmania, and the 
whole of continental Australia, besides a large assortment of 
miscellaneous islands scattered over the world wherever they 
would do the most good ; that Germany possessed the Marshall 
group and Northeast New Guinea, and divided with England 

174 



Renewed Aggressions 175 

the Solomons; that Spain had the Latlrones, the 652 islands 
of the Carolines, the 1,725 more or less of the Philippines, 
beside some enormously valuable holdings in the West Indies ; 
that the Dutch absolutely ruled Java, Sumatra, the greater part 
of Borneo, all of Celebes and the hundreds of islands eastward 
to New Guinea, half of which was under the Dutch flag ; that 
the new world power on the American continent took the 
Hawaiian Islands and in two swift campaigns drove Spain out 
of the West Indies and the Philippines, not to return them to 
their inhabitants but to keep them herself; and that in the 
Samoan and Friendly Islands, resident foreigners owned about 
everything worth having and left to the native chiefs only what 
the foreigners did not want or could not agree upon. As for 
mighty Africa, the Berlin Conference of 1884 was the signal 
for a game of grab on so colossal a scale that to-day out of 
Africa's 11,980,000 square miles, France owns 3,074,000, 
Great Britain 2,818,000, Turkey 1,672,000, Belgium 900,000, 
Portugal 834,000, Germany 864,000, Italy 596,000, and Spain 
263,000, — a total of 10,980,000, or ten-elevenths of the whole 
continent, and doubtless the Powers will take the remaining 
eleventh whenever they feel like it. Well does the Rev. Dr. 
James Stewart call this "the most stupendous and unparalleled 
partition of the earth's surface ever known in the world's 
history. . . . The vast area was partitioned, annexed, ap- 
propriated, or converted into 'spheres of influence,' or 'spheres 
of interest ' ; whatever may be the exact words we may use, 
the result is the same. Coast lands and hinterlands all went 
in this great appropriation, and mild is the term for the deed." ^ 

"Gobbling the globe," this process has been forcefully if 
inelegantly termed. No wonder that the white race has been 
bitterly described as "the most arrogant and rapacious, the 
most exclusive and intolerant race in history." 

We can understand, therefore, the alarm of the Chinese as 
they saw the greedy foreigners descend upon their own shores 
•"Dawn in the Dark Continent," pp. 17, 18. 



176 New Forces in Old China 

in such ways as to justify the fear that what remained of the 
Celestial Empire, too, would be speedily reduced to vassalage. 
Germany, which was among the last of the European powers 
to obtain a foothold in China, but which had been growing 
more and more uneasy as she saw the acquisitions of her rivals, 
suddenly found her opportunity in the murder of two German 
Roman Catholic priests in the province of Shantung, December 
1897, and on the 14th of that month Admiral Diedrich landed 
marines at Kiao-chou Bay. At that time nothing but a few 
straggling, poverty-stricken Chinese villages were to be seen at 
the foot of the barren hills bordering the bay. But the keen 
eye of Germany had detected the possibiUties of the place and 
early in the following year, under the forms of an enforced 
ninety-nine year lease, Germany took this splendid harbour 
and the territory bordering it, and at Tsing-tau began to push 
her interests so aggressively that the whole province of Shan- 
tung was thrown into the most intense excitement and alarm. 

Knowing how recently the city had been founded, I looked 
upon it with wonder. It was only three years and a half since 
the Germans had taken possession, but no boom city in the 
United States ever made more rapid progress in so short a 
period. Not a Chinese house could be seen, except a village 
in the distance. But along the shores rose a city of modern 
buildings with banks, department stores, public buildings, com- 
fortable residences, a large church and imposing marine bar- 
racks. Landing, I found broad streets, some of them already 
well paved and others being paved by removing the dirt to a 
depth of twelve inches and then filling the excavation solid 
with broken rock. The gutters were wide and of stone, the 
sewers deep and, in some cases, cut through the solid rock. 

The city was under naval control, the German Governor 
being a naval officer. Several war-ships were lying in the har- 
bour. A large force of marines was on shore, and the hills 
commanding the city and harbour were bristling with cannon. 
The Germans were spending money without stint. No less 



Renewed Aggressions 177 

than 11,000,000 marks were being expended that year for 
streets, sewers, water and electric light works, barracks, fortifi- 
cations, wharves, a handsome hotel and public buildings, while 
the Government had appropriated 50,000,000 Mex. (5,000,- 
000 a year for ten years) for deepening and enlarging the inner 
harbour. But in addition to these Government expenditures, 
many enterprising business men were undertaking large enter- 
prises on their own account. It was apparent to the most 
casual observer that Germany had entered Shantung to stay 
and that she considered the whole vast province of Shantung 
as her sphere of influence. The railway, already referred to 
in a former chapter, was being constructed into the interior 
with solid road-bed, steel ties and substantial stone stations. 
German mining engineers were prospecting for minerals and 
everything indicated large plans for a permanent occupation. 

The site of Tsing-tau is beautiful and exceptionally healthful. 
While the ports of Teng-chou and Chefoo are also in Shan- 
tung, the first is now of little importance, for it is on the north- 
eastern part of the promontory with a mountain range behind 
it so that it is difficult of access from the interior. Chefoo, 
which was not opened as a port until later, rapidly superseded 
Teng-chou in importance and continues to grow with great 
rapidity. But it is plain that the Germans intend to make 
Tsing-tau, only twenty hours distant by steamer, the chief port 
of Shantung, and as they have the railroad, they will doubtless 
succeed. 

From hundreds of outlying villages, the Chinese are flocking 
into Tsing-tau, attracted by the remunerative employment 
which the Germans off'er, for of course, tens of thousands of 
labourers are necessary to carry out the extensive improvements 
that are planned. The thrifty Chinese are quite wiUing to 
take the foreigner's money, however much they may dislike 
him. Since the white man is here, we might as well get what 
we can out of him, the Celestials philosophically argue. And 
SO the Germans, who had ruthlessly destroyed the old, unsani- 



178 New Forces in Old China 

tary Chinese villages which they had found on their arrival, 
laid out model Chinese villages on the outskirts of the city. 
The new Chinese city is about two and a half miles from the 
foreign city and is connected with it by a splendid macad- 
amized road for which the Germans filled ravines, cut through 
the solid rock of the hillsides and made retaining walls and 
culverts of solid masonry. Some of the old stone houses were 
allowed to remain, but many of the poorer houses were demol- 
ished, streets were straightened and the whole city placed under 
strict sanitary supervision. The Chinese as they came in were 
told where and how their houses must be erected on the regu- 
larly laid out streets. The houses are numbered and many 
of the stores have signs in both German and Chinese. At the 
time of my visit, the Chinese city had a population of 8,000, 
the streets were crowded, and marketing, picture and theatrical 
exhibitions and all the forms of life, so common in Chinese 
cities, were to be seen on every side. Since then, the popula- 
tion has greatly increased, while another Chinese city has been 
laid out on the open ground on the other side of the foreign 
city. There is every indication that Tsing-tau is to become 
one of the great port cities of China, and the opportunities for 
trade, the coming of steamships and the construction of the 
railway are making it an attractive place to multitudes of 
ambitious Chinese. 

The German Government owns all the land in and about 
Tsing-tau, and will not sell save on condition that approved 
buildings are erected within three years. The single tax 
plan has been adopted, that is, there is no tax on buildings 
but there is a six per cent, tax on all land that is sold. This 
shuts out the land speculator who has injured so many Ameri- 
can cities. No man can buy cheap land and let it lie idle while 
it rises in value as the result of his neighbour's improvements and 
the growth of the community. The German Government will 
do its own speculating and reap for itself the increment of its 
costly and elaborate improvements. It is making a noble city. 



Renewed Aggressions 179 

Streets, sewers, buildings, docks, sea walls, harbour-dredging, 
tree planting — all point to great and far-reaching plans, while 
under pretext of guarding the railroad, troops are being gradu- 
ally pushed into the interior. The Kaonii garrison, in the hinter- 
land eighteen miles beyond the Kiao-chou city line and sixty- 
four from Tsing-tau, consisted of 100 men when I was there 
in the spring of 1901. A few months later it was 1,000. 
Plainly the Germans are moving in. 

The ease and dispatch with which Germany succeeded in 
obtaining an enormously valuable strategic point in the rich 
province of Shangtung aroused the cupidity of rival nations, 
and they threw off all pretense to decency in their scramble for 
further territories. Russian statesmen had long ago seen that 
the Pacific Ocean was to be the arena of world events of colos- 
sal significance to the race. We have noted in a former chap- 
ter how she had already extended her territory till she touched 
the Pacific Ocean on the far north and how, partly that she 
might develop it, but primarily that she might have a highway 
through it to the great ocean which lies beyond, she had begun 
the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the late Czar, 
Alexander III, guaranteeing out of his own private funds 
350,000,000 rubles towards the necessary expense. The most 
southern port of Russia on the Pacific Ocean was Vladivostok, 
which was therefore made the terminus of the line and rapidly 
and strongly fortified. But Russia was not content with a 
harbour which is closed by ice six months in the year. She 
therefore began to press her way southward through Manchuria. 
In November, 1894, Japan had wrested from China the penin- 
sula terminating in Port Arthur, and the treaty of Shimonoseki, 
at the close of the war, had given Japan the Liao-tung penin- 
sula, opened four Manchurian ports to foreign trade, and con- 
ceded to Japan valuable commercial rights in Manchuria, 
rights which gave the Japanese virtual ascendancy. Ostensibly 
in the interests of China, but really of her own ambition, 
Russia gravely said that it would never do to permit Japan to 



l8o New Forces in Old China 

remain in Manchuria, virtuously declaring that "the integrity 
of China must be preserved at all costs." She persuaded 
France and Germany to join her in notifying the Japanese 
Government that "it would not be permitted to retain perma- 
nent possession of any portion of the mainland of Asia." 
Japan, feeling at that time unprepared to fight three European 
powers, was forced to relinquish the prize of victory. The 
solicitude of Russia for the integrity of helpless China was 
quite touching, but it did not prevent her from making one en- 
croachment after another upon the coveted territory until 
March 8, 1898, to the rage and chagrin of Japan, she peremp- 
torily demanded for herself and March 27th of the same year 
obtained Port Arthur including Ta-lien-wan and 800 square 
miles of adjoining territory. She speciously declared that 
"her occupation of Port Arthur was merely temporary and 
only to secure a harbour for wintering the Russian fleet." But 
grim significance was given to her action by the prompt ap- 
pearance at Port Arthur of 20,000 Russian soldiers and 90,000 
coolies who were set to work developing a great modern fortifi- 
cation almost under the eyes of the Chinese capital. 

As it was expedient, however, to have a commercial city on 
the peninsula as well as a fortification, as the harbour of Port 
Arthur was not large enough for both naval and commercial 
purposes, and as the Russians did not wish anyway to make 
their fortified base accessible to the rest of the world, they de- 
cided to build a city forty-five miles north of Port Arthur and 
call it Dalny, which quite appropriately means "far away." 
Most cities grow, but this was too slow a method for the 
purpose of the Slav, and therefore, a metropolis was forthwith 
made to order as a result of an edict issued by the Czar, 
July 30, 1899. 

The harbour of Dalny is an exceptionally fine one with over 
thirty feet of water at low tide so that the largest vessels can 
lie alongside the docks and transfer their cargoes directly to 
trains for Europe. Great piers were constructed; enormous 



Renewed Aggressions i8i 

warehouses and elevators erected ; gas, electric light, water and 
streetcar plants installed ; wide and well-sewered streets laid 
out ; and a thoroughly modern and handsome city planned in 
four sections, the first of which was administrative, the second 
mercantile, the third residence, and the fourth Chinese. The 
Russians were sparing neither labour nor expense in the con- 
struction of this ambitious city which, by January, 1904, al- 
ready had a population of over 50,000, and represented a re- 
ported expenditure of about $150,000,000. April 9, 1902, 
Russia solemnly promised to evacuate Manchuria October 8, 
1903. But when that day came, she remained, as every one 
knew that she would, under the unblushing pretext that Man- 
churia was not yet sufficiently pacified to justify her with- 
drawal from a region where her interests were so great. As 
Manchuria was at the time as quiet as some of Russia's 
European provinces, the reason alleged reminds one of the 
Arab's reply to a man who wished to borrow his rope — "I 
need it myself to tie up some sand with." "But," expostu- 
lated the would-be borrower, ' ' that is a poor excuse for you 
cannot tie up sand with a rope," "I know that," was the 
calm rejoinder, "but any excuse will serve when I don't want 
to do a thing." So to the concern of China, the envy of 
Europe and the wrath of Japan, Manchuria practically became 
a Russian province until Japan, unable to restrain her exasper- 
ation longer and feeling that Russia's plans were a menace to 
her own safety, had developed her army and navy and begun 
the war which is being fiercely waged as this chapter goes to 
press. 

Not to be outdone by Germany and Russia, other nations 
made haste to seize what they could find. April 2, 1898, 
England secured the lease of Lin-kung, with all the islands 
and a strip ten miles wide on the mainland, thus giving the 
British a strong post at Wei-hai Wei. April 2 2d, France per- 
emptorily demanded, and May 2d obtained, the bay of Kwang- 
chou-wan, while Japan found her share in a concession for 



l82 New Forces in Old China 

Foochow, Wu-sung, Fan-ning, Yo-chou and Chung-wan-tao. 
By 1899, in all China's 3,000 miles of coast line, there was not 
a harbour in which she could mobilize her own ships without 
the consent of the hated foreigner. 

A clever Chinese artist in Hongkong grimly drew a car- 
toon of the situation of his country as he and his countrymen 
saw it. The Russian Bear, coming down from the north, 
his feet planted in Manchuria and northern Korea, sees 
the British Bulldog seated in southern China, while " The 
Sun Elf" (Japan), sitting upon its Island Kingdom, 
proclaims that "John Bull and I will watch the Bear." 
The German Sausage around Kiau-chou makes no sign of life, 
but the French Frog, jumping about in Tonquin and Annam 
and branded "Fashoda and Colonial Expansion," tries to 
stretch a friendly hand to the Bear over the Bulldog's head. 
Then, to offset this proffered assistance to the Bear, the Chinese 
artist, with characteristic cunning, brings in the New World 
power. He places the American Eagle over the Philippines, 
its beak extended towards the Bulldog, and writes upon it the 
phrase, " Blood is thicker than water." ^ 

As far as Americans have any sympathy at all with European 
schemes for conquest in China, they naturally look with more 
favour on England and Germany than on France and Rus- 
sia. The reason is apparent. England establishes honest and 
beneficent government wherever she goes and makes its ad- 
vantages freely accessible to the citizens of other nations, so 
that an American is not only as safe but as unrestricted in all 
his legitimate activities as he would be in his own land. 
Germany, too, while not so hospitable as England, is neverthe- 
less a Teutonic, Protestant power under whose ascendancy in 
Shantung our missionaries find ample freedom. But France 
and Russia are more narrowly and jealously national in their 
aims. Their possessions are openly regarded as assets to be 
managed for their own interests rather than for those of the na- 

^ Reproduced in the Newark, N. J., Evenitig News, January 9, 1904. 



Renewed Aggressions 183 

tives or of the world. The colonial attitude of the former to- 
wards all Protestant missionary work is dictated by the Roman 
Catholic Church and is therefore hostile to Protestants, while 
the Russian Greek Church tolerates no other form of religion 
that it can repress. A recent traveller reports that Russia has 
put every possible obstruction in the way of reopening the mis- 
sion stations that were abandoned during the Boxer outbreak. 
She has already put Manchuria under the Greek archimandrite 
of Peking, and has sought to limit all Christian teaching to the 
members of the Orthodox Greek Church. It is significant that 
Russia is strenuously opposing, under a variety of pretexts, the 
"open door" which Secretary Hay obtained from China in 
Manchuria, while there is ground for suspecting that Russian 
influence in Constantinople is preventing, or at least delaying 
as long as possible, that legal recognition of American rights 
in Turkey which the Sultan has already granted to several 
other nations. As for Russian ascendancy in Manchuria, 
everybody knows that it is inimical to the interests of other 
countries and that there will be little freedom of trade if Russia 
can prevent it. 



XVI 

GROWING IRRITATION OF THE CHINESE— THE 
REFORM PARTY 



T 



f @ A HE effect of the operation of these commercial and 
political forces upon a conservative and exclusive 
people was of course to exasperate to a high degree. 
A proud people were wounded in their most sensitive place by 
the ruthless and arrogant way in which foreigners broke down 
their cherished wall of separation from the rest of the world and 
trampled upon their highly-prized customs and institutions. 

It must be admitted that the history of the dealings of the 
Christian powers with China is not altogether pleasant reading. 
The provocation was indeed great, but the retaliation was 
heavy. And all the time foreign nations refused to grant to the 
Chinese the privileges which they forced them to grant to others. 
We sometimes imagine that the Golden Rule is peculiar to 
Christianity. It is indeed in its highest form, but its spirit 
was recognized by Confucius five centuries before Christ. His 
expression of it was negative, but it gave the Chinese some 
idea of the principle. They were not, therefore, pleasantly im- 
pressed when they found the alleged Christian nations violating 
that principle. Even Christian America has not been an ex- 
ception. We have Chinese exclusion laws, but we will not 
allow China to exclude Americans. We sail our gunboats up 
her rivers, but we would not allow China to sail gunboats into 
ours. If a Chinese commits a crime in America, he is amenable 
to American law as interpreted by an American court. But if 
an American commits a crime in China, he can be tried only 
by his consul ; not a Chinese court in the Empire has jurisdic- 
tion over him, and the people naturally infer from this that 

184. 



Growing Irritation of the Chinese 185 

we have no confidence in their sense of justice or in their 
administration of it. 

This law of extra-territoriaUty is one of the chief sources of 
irritation against foreigners, for it not only implies contempt, 
but it makes foreigners a privileged class. Said Minister Wen 
Hsiang in 1868: — "Take away your extra-territorial clause, 
and merchant and missionary may settle anywhere and every- 
where. But retain it, and we must do our best to confine you 
and our trouble to the treaty ports." But unfortunately this 
is a cause of resentment that Western nations cannot prudently 
remove in the near future. While we can understand the re- 
sentment of the Chinese magistrates as they see their methods 
discredited by the foreigner, it would not do to subject Euro- 
peans and Americans to Chinese legal procedure. The lan- 
guage of Mr. Wade, the British Minister, to Minister Wen 
Hsiang in June, 1871, is still applicable: — 

" Experience has shown that, in many cases, the latter (law of China) 
will condemn a prisoner to death, where the law of England would be 
satisfied by a penalty far less severe, if indeed, it were possible to punish 
the man at all. It is to be deplored that misunderstandings should arise 
from a difference in our codes ; but I see no remedy for this until China 
shall see fit to revise the process of investigation now common in her 
courts. So long as evidence is wrung from witnesses by torture, it is 
scarcely possible for the authorities of a foreign power to associate 
themselves with those of China in the trial of a criminal case ; and unless the 
authorities of both nationalities are present, there will always be a sus- 
picion of unfairness on one side or the other. This difficulty surmounted, 
there would be none in the way of providing a code of laws to affect 
mixed cases ; none, certainly, on the part of England ; none, in my be- 
lief, either, on the part of any other Power." ^ 

Meantime, as the Hon. Frederick F. Low, United States 
Minister at Peking, wrote to the State Department at Wash- 

' Correspondence Respecting the Circular of the Chinese Government 
of February 9, 187 1, Relating to Missionaries. Presented to both 
Houses of Parliament by command of Iler Majesty, 1872. 



l86 New Forces in Old China 

ington, March 20, 1871 : — "The dictates of humanity will 
not permit the renunciation of the right for all foreigners that 
they shall be governed and punished by their own laws." 

But the Chinese do not see the question in that light. Their 
methods of legal procedure are sanctioned in their eyes by im- 
memorial custom and they fail to understand why forms that, 
in their judgment, are good enough for Chinese are not also good 
enough for despised foreigners. When we take into considera- 
tion the further fact that the typical white man, the world 
over, acts as if he were a lord of creation, and treats Asiatics 
with more or less condescension as if they were his inferiors, we 
can understand the very natural resentment of the Chinese, 
who have just as much pride of race as we have, and who in- 
deed consider themselves the most highly civilized people in 
the world. The fact that foreign nations are able to thrash 
them does not convince them that those nations are superior, 
any more than a gentleman's physical defeat by a pugilist would 
satisfy him that the pugilist is a better man. It is not without 
significance that the white man is generally designated in China 
as " the foreign devil." 

The natural resentment of the Chinese in such circumstances 
was intensified by the conduct of the foreign soldiery. Army 
life is not a school of virtue anywhere, particularly in Asia where 
a comparatively defenseless people open wide opportunities for 
evil practices and where Asiatic methods of opposition in- 
furiate men. In almost every place where the soldiers of 
Europe landed, they pillaged and burned and raped and 
slaughtered like incarnate fiends. Chefoo to-day is an illustra- 
tion of the effect. It is a city where foreigners have resided 
for forty years, where there are consuls of all nations and ex- 
tensive business relations with other ports, where foreign 
steamers regularly touch and where war-ships frequently lie. 
There were five formidable cruisers there during my visit. 
Surely the Chinese of Chefoo should understand the situation. 
But during the troubles of i860, French troops were quartered 



Growing Irritation of the Chinese 187 

there and their conduct was so atrociously brutal and lustful 
that Chefoo has ever since been bitterly anti-foreign. The 
Presbyterian missionaries have repeatedly tried to do Christian 
work in the old walled city, but have never succeeded in gain- 
ing a foothold, and all their local missionary work is confined 
to the numerous population which has come from other parts of 
the province and settled around Chefoo proper. Nothing but 
battleships in the harbour kept that old city from attacking 
foreigners during the Boxer outbreak. Even to-day the cry 
"kill, kill" is sometimes raised as a foreigner walks through 
the streets, and inflammatory placards are often posted on the 
walls. 

With the record of foreign aggressions in China before us, 
can we wonder that the Chinese became restive ? The New 
York Sufi truly says: "It was while Chinese territory was 
thus virtually being given away that the people became uneasy 
and riots were started ; the people felt that their land had been 
despoiled." The Hon. Chester Holcombe truly remarks : — 

" Those who desire to know more particularly what the Chinese 
think about it, how they regard the proposed dismemberment of the 
Empire and the extinction of their national life, are referred to the 
Boxer movement as furnishing a practical exposition of their views. It 
contained the concentrated wrath and hate of sixty years' slow growth. 
And it had the hearty sympathy of many, many millions of Chinese, who 
took no active part in it. For, beyond a doubt, it represented to them a 
patriotic effort to save their country from foreign aggression and ultimate 
destruction. . . . The European Powers have only themselves to 
thank for the bitter hatred of the Chinese and the crash in which it cul- 
minated. Governmental policies outrageous and beyond excuse, 
scandalous diplomacy, and unprovoked attacks upon the rights and 
possessions of China, have been at the root of all the trouble." ' 

And shall we pretend innocent surprise that the irritation of 
the Chinese rapidly grew ? Suppose that after the murder of 
the Chinese in Rock Springs, Wyoming, a Chinese fleet 

' Article in The Outlook, February 13, 1904. 



l88 New Forces in Old China 

had been able to seize New York and Boston Harbours, and 
suppose our Government had been weak enough to ac- 
quiesce. Would the American people have made any protest ? 
Would the lives of Chinese have been safe on our streets ? And 
was it an entirely base impulse that led the men of China vio- 
lently to oppose the forcible seizure of their country by aliens ? 
The Empress Dowager declared in her now famous edict : — 

" The various Powers cast upon us looks of tiger-like voracity, hustling 
each other in their endeavours to be first to seize upon our innermost ter- 
ritories. They think that China, having neither money nor troops, w^ould 
never venture to go to war with them. They fail to understand, however, 
that there are certain things which this Empire can never consent to, and 
that, if hard pressed, we have no alternative but to rely upon the justice 
of our cause, the knowledge of which in our breasts strengthens our re- 
solves and steels us to present a united front against our aggressors." 

That would probably be called patriotic if it had emanated 
from the ruler of any other people. 

When with Russia in Manchuria, Germany in Shantung, 
England in the valleys of the Yang-tze and the Pearl, France 
in Tonquin and Japan in Formosa, the whole Empire appeared 
to be in imminent danger of absorption, the United States again 
showed itself the friend of China by trying to stem the tide. 
Our great Secretary of State, John Hay, sent to the European 
capitals that famous note of September, 1899, which none of 
them wanted to answer but which none of them dared to re- 
fuse, inviting them to join the United States in assuring the 
apprehensive Chinese that the Governments of Europe and 
America had no designs upon China's territorial integrity, but 
simply desired an "open door" for commerce, and that any 
claims by one nation of "sphere of influence" would "in no 
way interfere with any treaty port or any vested interest ' ' 
within that sphere, but that all nations should continue to enjoy 
equality of treatment. In response, the Russian Government, 
December 30, 1899, through Count Mouravieff, suavely de- 
clared : — 



Growing Irritation of the Chinese 189' 

"The Imperial Government has already demonstrated its firm intention 
to follow the policy of the « open door.' . . . As to the ports now 
opened or hereafter to be opened to foreign commerce by the Chinese 
Government, . . . the Imperial Government has no intention what- 
ever of claiming any privileges for its own subjects to the exclusion of 
other foreigners." 

The other Powers also assented. But it was all in vain. 
Matters had already gone too far, and, beside, the Chinese 
knew well enough that the Powers were not to be trusted be- 
yond the limits of self-interest. 

Some of the Chinese, it is true, had the intelligence to see 
that changes were inevitable, and the result was the develop- 
ment of a Reform Party among the Chinese themselves. It 
was not large, but it included some influential men, though, 
unfortunately, their zeal was not always tempered by discretion. 
The war with Japan powerfully aided them,/ True, many of 
the Chinese do not yet know that there was such a war, for 
news travels slowly in a land whose railway and telegraph lines, 
newspapers and post-offices are yet few, and whose average 
inhabitant has never been twenty miles from the village in which 
he was born. But some who did know realized that Japan had 
won by the aid of Western methods. An eagerness to acquire 
those methods resulted. Missionaries were besieged by Chinese 
who wished to learn English. Modern books were given a 
wide circulation. Several of the influential advisers of the 
Emperor became students of Occidental science and political 
economy. In five years, 1 893-1 898, the book sales of one 
society — that for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowl- 
_edge Among the Chinese — leaped from ^817 to ^18,457, while 
jevery mission press was run to its utmost capacity to supply the 
new demands. 

A powerful exponent of the new ideas appeared in the great 
Viceroy, Chang Chih-tung. He wrote a book, entitled 
"China's Only Hope," exposing the causes of China's weak- 
ness and advocating radical reforms. The book was printed 



IQO New Forces in Old China 

by the Tsung-li Yamen, and by royal command copies were 
sent to the high officials of the Empire. Big yellow posters ad- 
vertised it from the walls of leading cities, and in a short time 
a million copies were sold. It is hardly an exaggeration to say 
that "this book made more history in a shorter time than any 
other modern piece of literature, that it astonished a kingdom, 
convulsed an Empire and brought on a war." 

The Reform Party urged the young Emperor to use the im- 
perial power for the advancement of his people. He yielded to 
the pressure and became an eager and diligent student of the 
Western learning and methods. In the opening months of the 
year 1898, he bought no less than 129 foreign books, including 
a Bible and several scientific works, besides maps, globes, and 
wind and current charts. Nor did he stop with this, but with 
the ardour of a new convert issued the now famous reform 
edicts, which, if they could have been carried into effect, would 
have revolutionized China and started her on the high road to 
national greatness. These memorable decrees have been sum- 
marized as follows : 



1. Establishing a university at Peking. 

2. Sending imperial clansmen to study European and American Gov- 
ernments. 

3. Encouraging art, science and modern agriculture. 

4. Expressing the willingness of the Emperor to hear the objections 
of the conservatives to progress and reform. 

5. Abolishing the literary essay as a prominent part of the Govern- 
ment examinations. 

6. Censuring those who attempted to delay the establishment of the 
Peking Imperial University. 

7. Directing that the construction of the Lu Han railway be carried 
on with more vigour. 

8. Advising the adoption of Western arms and drill for all the Tartar 
troops. 

9. Ordering the establishment of agricultural schools in the provinces 
to teach improved methods of agriculture. 

10. Ordering the introduction of patent and copyright laws. 



Growing Irritation of the Chinese 19 1 

11. Ordering the Board of War and the Foreign Office to report on 
the reform of the military examinations. 

12. Ofl'ering special rewards to inventors and authors. 

13. Ordering oflicials to encourage trade and assist merchants. 

14. Ordering the foundation of school boards in every city in the 
Empire. 

15. Establishing a Bureau of Mines and Railroads. 

16. Encouraging journalists to write on all political subjects. 

17. Establishing naval academies and training ships. 

18. Summoning the ministers and provincial authorities to assist the 
Emperor in his work of reform. 

19. Directing that schools be founded in connection with all the Chi- 
nese legations in foreign countries for the benefit of the children of Chi- 
nese in those countries. 

20. Establishing commercial bureaus in Shanghai for the encourage- 
ment of trade. 

21. Abolishing six useless Boards in Peking. 

22. Granting the right to memorialize the Throne by sealed me- 
morials. 

23. Dismissing two presidents and four vice-presidents of the Board 
of Rites for disobeying the Emperor's orders that memorials should be 
presented to him unopened. 

24. Abolishing the governorships of Hupeh, Kwang-tung and Yun-nan 
as a useless expense to the country. 

25. Establishing schools for instruction in the preparation of tea and 
silk. 

26. Abolishing the slow courier posts in favour of the Imperial Cus- 
toms' Post. 

27. Approving a system of budgets as in Western countries. 

But, alas, it is disastrous to try to " hustle the East." The 
Chinese are phlegmatic and will endure much, but this was a 
little too much. Myriads of scholars and officials, who saw 
their hopes and positions jeopardized by the new tests, pro- 
tested with all the virulence of the silversmiths of Ephesus, and 
all the conservatism of China rallied to their support. 

Meantime, the Yellow River, aptly named " China's Sor- 
row," again overflowed its banks, devastating a region 100 
miles long and varying from twenty-five to fifty miles wide. 



192 New Forces in Old China 

Three hundred villages were swept away and 1,000,000 people 
made homeless. Famine and pestilence speedily followed, so 
that the whole catastrophe assumed appalling proportions. 
Even American communities are apt to become reckless and 
riotous in time of calamity, and in China this tendency of hu- 
man nature was intensified by a superstition which led the peo- 
ple to believe that the disaster was due to the baleful influence 
of the foreigners, or that it was a punishment for their failure 
to resist them, while in the farther north a drought led to 
equally superstitious fury against "the foreign devils." _J 



XVII 

THE BOXER UPRISING 

THE now famous Boxers were members of two of the 
secret societies which have long flourished in China, 
To the Chinese they are known as League of United 
Patriots, Great Sword Society, Righteous Harmony Fists' As- 
sociation and kindred names. Originally, they were hostile 
to the foreign Manchu dynasty. When Germany made the 
murder of two Roman Catholic missionaries a pretext for push- 
ing her political ambitions, the Boxers naturally arrayed them- 
selves against them. As the champions of the national spirit 
against the foreigners, the membership rapidly increased. Super- 
natural power was claimed. Temples were converted into 
meeting-places, and soon excited men were drilling in every 
village. 

The real ruler of China at this time, as all the world knows, 
was the Empress Dowager, who has been characterized as 
"the only man in China." At any rate, she is a woman of 
extraordinary force of character. She was astute enough to 
encourage the Boxers, and thus turn one of the most trouble- 
some foes of the Manchu throne against the common enemy, 
the foreigner. Under her influence, the depredations of the 
Boxers, which were at first confined to the Shantung Province, 
spread with the swiftness of a prairie fire, until in the spring of 
1900 the most important provinces of the Empire were ablaze 
and the legations in Peking were closely besieged. In the 
heat of the conflict and under the agonizing strain of anxiety 
for imperilled loved ones, many hard things were said and 
written about the officials who allied themselves with the 
Boxers. But Sir Robert Hart, who personally knew them and 

193 



194 New Forces in Old China 

who suffered as much as any one from their fury, candidly 
wrote after the siege : " These men were eminent in their own 
country for their learning and services, were animated by 
patriotism, were enraged by foreign dictation, and had the 
courage of their convictions. We must do them the justice of 
allowing that they were actuated by high motives and love of 
country, " though he adds, "that does not always or neces- 
sarily mean political ability or highest wisdom." ; 

And so the irrepressible conflict broke out. It had to come, 
a conflict between conservatism and progress, between race 
prejudice and brotherhood, between superstition and Chris- 
tianity, the tremendous conflict of ages which every nation has 
had to fight, and which in China was not different in kind, 
but only on a more colossal scale because there it involved 
half the human race at once. Of course it was impossible 
for so vast a nation permanently to segregate itself. The river 
of progress cannot be permanently stayed. It will gather force 
behind an obstacle until it is able to sweep it away, < The 
Boxer uprising was the breaking up of this fossilized conserv- 
atism. It was such a tumultuous upheaval as the crusades 
caused in breaking up the stagnation of mediseval Europe, As 
France opposed the new ideas, which in England were quietly 
accepted, only to have them surge over her in the frightful 
flood of the revolution, so China entered with the violence al- 
ways inseparable from resistance the transition which Japan 
welcomed with a more open mind^ 1 

Though missionaries were not the real cause of the Boxer 
uprising, its horrors fell most heavily upon them. This was 
partly because many of them were living at exposed points in 
the interior while most other foreigners were assembled in the 
treaty ports where they were better protected ; partly because 
the movement developed such hysterical frenzy that it attacked 
with blind, unreasoning fury every available foreigner, and 
partly because in most places the actual killing and pillaging 
were not done by the people who best knew the missionaries 



The Boxer Uprising 19^ 

but by mobs from the slums, ruffians from other villages, or, 
as in Paoting-fu and Shan-si, in obedience to the direct orders 
of bigoted officials. 

And so it came to pass that the innocent suffered more than 
the guilty. Dr. A. H. Smith ' concluded after careful inquiry 
that "the devastating Boxer cyclone cost the lives of 135 adult 
Protestant missionaries and fifty-three children and of thirty- 
five Roman Catholic Fathers and nine Sisters. The Protestants 
were in connection with ten different missions, one being un- 
connected. They were murdered in four provinces and in 
Mongolia, and belonged to Great Britain, the United States and 
Sweden. No such outbreak against Christianity has been 
seen in modern times. The destruction of property was on 
the same continental scale. Generally speaking, all mission 
stations north of the Yellow River, with all their dwelling-houses, 
chapels, hospitals, dispensaries, schools, and buildings of every 
description were totally destroyed, though there were occasional 
exceptions, of which the village where these pages are written 
was one. The central and southern portions of the Empire 
were only partially affected by the anti-foreign madness, not 
because they were under different conditions, but mainly 
through the strong repressive measures of four men, Liu Kun 
Yi and Chang Chih-tung, Governors-General of the four great 
provinces in the Yang-tse Valley ; Yuan Shih Kai in Shantung, 
and a Manchu, Tuan Fang, in Shen-si. The jurisdiction of 
this quartette made an impassable barrier across which the 
movement was unable to project itself in force, but much mis- 
chief in an isolated way was wrought in nearly every part of 
China not rigorously controlled." 

So many volumes have been written about the Boxer Upris- 
ing that it is not necessary to double the size of this book in 
order to recount the details. For the full narrative, the reader 
is referred to the books mentioned below.* But I cannot for- 

■ " Rex Christus," p. 210. 

^ " China in Convulsion," Arthur H. Smith ; " The Outbreak in China," 



196 New Forces in Old China 

bear some description of the scenes of massacre that I person- 
ally visited. I was unable to go to the remoter province of 
Shan-si where so many devoted men and women laid down 
their lives and where many who escaped death endured inde- 
scribable hardships. But in the province of Shantung, where 
the Boxer Uprising originated, I was witness to the ruin that 
was wrought in many places, though the iron hand of the 
great Governor, Yuan Shih Kai, prevented much bloodshed. 
Then I turned to the northern province of Chih-li where official 
hands, instead of restraining, actually guided and goaded the 
maddened rioters. 

After a delightful voyage of eighteen hours from Chefoo 
over a smooth sea, we anchored outside the bar, nine miles 
from shore, the tide not permitting our steamer to cross with 
its heavy load. A tug took us off and entering the Pei-ho 
River, we passed the famous Taku forts to the railway wharf at 
Tong-ku. It was significant to find foreign flags flying over the 
Taku forts and also over the mud-walled villages near by. 
Scores of merchant steamers, transports and war vessels were 
lying off" Taku as well as hundreds of junks. The river was 
full of smaller craft among which were several Japanese and 
American gunboats. The railroad station presented a motley 
appearance. A regiment of Japanese had just arrived and 
while we were waiting, three train-loads of British Sikhs and 
several cars of Austrian marines and British " Tommy Atkins " 
came in. The platform was thronged with officers and soldiers 
of various nationalities, including a few Russians. 

Nothing could be more dreary than the mud flats that the 

F. L. Hawks Pott ; " The World Crisis in China, 1900," Allen S. Will ; 
" Siege Days," A. H. Mateer ; « The Siege of Peking," Wm. A. P. 
Martin ; " The Providence of God in the Siege of Peking," C. H. Fenn ; 
" The Tragedy of Paoting-fu," Isaac C. Ketler ; " The China Martyrs of 
1900," Robert C. Forsythe ; " China," James H. Wilson; " China's Book 
of Martyrs," Luella Miner ; « Two Heroes of Cathay," Luella Miner ; 
" Through Fire and Sword in Shan-si," E. H. Edwards ; " Chinese 
Heroes," I. T. Headland ; " Martyred Missionaries of the C. I. M.," Brown- 
hall; " The Crisis in China," G, B. Smith and others. 



The Boxer Uprising 197 

traveller to the imperial city first sees. The greater part of the 
way from Taku to Peking, the soil is poor and little cultivated. 
But as we advanced, kao-liang fields were more frequent, 
though the growth was far behind that in Shantung at the same 
season. Small trees were numerous during the latter half of 
the trip. The soil being too thin for good crops, the people 
grow more fuel and fruit. 

Evidences of the great catastrophe were seen long before 
reaching the capital. Burned villages and battered buildings 
lined the route. At Tien-tsin several of the foreign buildings 
had shell holes. One corrugated iron building near the rail- 
way station was pierced like a sieve and thousands of native 
houses were in ruins. The city wall had been razed to the 
ground and a highway made where it had stood — an unspeakable 
humiliation to the proud commercial metropolis. The Japa- 
nese soldiers teased the citizens by telling them that "a city 
without a wall is like a woman without clothes," and the 
people keenly felt the shame implied in the taunt. 

In Peking, the very fact that the railroad train on which we 
travelled rushed noisily through a ragged chasm in the wall of 
the Chinese city, and stopped at the entrance of the Temple of 
Heaven, was suggestive of the consequences of war. The 
city, as a whole, was not as badly injured as I had expected to 
find it, but the ravages of war were evident enough. Wrecked 
shops, crumbled houses, shot-torn walls were on every side, 
while the most sacred places to a Chinese and a Manchu had 
been profaned. At other times the Purple Forbidden City, 
the Winter and Summer Palaces, the Temple of Heaven and 
kindred imperial enclosures are inaccessible to the foreigner. 
But a pass from the military authorities opened to us every door. 
We walked freely through the extensive grounds and into all 
the famous buildings — including the throne rooms which the 
highest Chinese official can approach only upon his knees and 
with his face abjectly on the stone pavement — and the private 
apartments of the Emperor and the Empress Dowager. I was 



198 New Forces in Old China 

impressed by the vastness of the Palace buildings and grounds, 
the carvings of stone and wood, and the number of articles of 
foreign manufacture. But thousands of Americans in moder- 
ate circumstances have more spacious and comfortable bed- 
rooms than those of the Emperor and Empress Dowager of 
China. All the living apartments looked cheerless. The 
floors were of artificial stone or brick in squares of about 
20x20 inches and of course everything was covered with dust. 
The far-famed Temple of Heaven is the most artistic building 
in China, a dream of beauty, colour and grace. For a genera- 
tion before the siege of Peking, no foreigner except General 
Grant had entered that sacred enclosure, and the Chinese raised 
a furore because Li Hung Chang admitted even the distinguished 
American. As I freely walked about the place, photographed 
the Temple and stood on the circular altar that is supposed to 
be the centre of the earth and where the Emperor worships 
alone at the winter solstice, British Sikhs lounged under the 
trees, army mules munched the luxuriant grass and quar- 
termasters' wagons stood in long rows near the sacred spot 
where a Chinese would prostrate himself in reverence and fear. 
We rode past innumerable ruined buildings and through 
motley throngs of Manchus, Chinese, German, French, Italian, 
British and Japanese soldiers to the Presbyterian compound at 
Duck Lane, which, though narrow, is not so unimportant a 
street as its name implies. But where devoted missionaries 
had so long lived and toiled, we saw only shapeless heaps of 
broken bricks and a few tottering fragments of walls. At the 
Second Street compound there was even greater ruin, if that 
were possible. Silently we stood beside the great hole which 
had once been the hospital cistern and from which the Japanese 
soldiers, after the siege, had taken the bodies of a hundred 
murdered Chinese. Not all had been Christians, for in that 
carnival of blood, many who were merely suspected of being 
friendly to foreigners were killed, while foes took advantage of 
the tumult to pay off old scores of hate. 




THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN, PEKING 



The Boxer Uprising 199 

The first reports that had come to New York were that four- 
fifths of the Chinese Christians and three-fourths of the boys and 
girls in the boarding-schools had been killed or had died under 
the awful hardships of that fatal summer. But as the months 
passed, first one and then another and another were found. 
Husbands searched for wives, parents for children, brothers 
for sisters, until a considerable number of the missing ones had 
been found, though the number of the lost was still great. 

About two hundred of these surviving Christians and their 
families were living together in native buildings adjoining the 
residence in which we were entertained. Their history was 
one of agony and bereavement. Including those who fell at 
Paoting-fu, 191 of their fellow Christians had received the 
crown of martyrdom, so that almost every survivor had lost 
father or mother, brother or sister or friend. The Chinese are 
supposed to be a phlegmatic people and not given to emotion. 
But never have I met a congregation more swiftly responsive 
than this one in Peking as I bore to them kindly messages from 
many friends in other lands. 

The Roman Catholic Cathedral was immortalized by Bishop 
Favier's defense during the memorable siege. The mission 
buildings occupy a spacious and strongly-walled compound in 
the Manchu city. Hundreds of bullet and shell holes in the roofs 
and walls were suggestive evidences of the fury of the Boxer 
attack, while great pits marked the spots where mines had 
been exploded. 

I called on the famous Bishop. He was, for he has since 
died, a burly, heavily-bearded Frenchman of about sixty-five 
apparently. He received us most cordially and readily talked 
of the siege. He said that of the eighty Europeans and 3,400 
Christians with him in the siege, 2,700 were women and chil- 
dren. Four hundred were buried, of whom forty were killed 
by bullets, twenty-five by one explosion, eighty-one by another 
and one by another. Of the rest, some died of disease but the 
greater part of starvation. Twenty-one children were buried 



200 New Forces in Old China 

at one time in one grave. Beside these 400 who were killed 
or who died, many more were blown to pieces in explosions so 
that nothing could be found to bury. Fifty-one children dis- 
appeared in this way and not a fragment remained. 

The first month of the siege, the food allowance was half a 
pound a day. The first half of the second month, it was re- 
duced to four ounces, but for the second half only two ounces 
could be served and the people had to eat roots, bark and the 
leaves of trees and shrubs. Eighteen mules were eaten during 
the siege. The Bishop said that in the diocese outside of 
Peking, 6,000 Chinese Catholics, including three native priests, 
were killed by the Boxers. Only four European priests were 
killed, one in Peking and three outside. "Not one foreign 
priest left the diocese during the troubles," a statement that is 
equally true of the Presbyterian missionaries and, so far as I 
know, of those of other churches. 

Clouds lowered as we left Peking, July 6th, on the Peking and 
Hankow Railway for Paoting-fu, that city of sacred and pain- 
ful interest to every American Christian. Soon rain began to 
fall, and it steadily continued while we rode over the vast level 
plain, through unending fields of kao-liang, interspersed with 
plots of beans, peanuts, melons and cucumbers, and mud and 
brick-walled villages whose squalid wretchedness was hidden 
by the abundant foliage of the trees, which are the only beauty 
of Chinese cities. At almost every railway station, roofless 
buildings, crumbling walls and broken water tanks bore painful 
witness to the rage of the Boxers. At Liang-hsiang-hsien the 
first foreign property was destroyed, and all along the line 
outrages were perpetrated on the inoffensive native Christians. 
Nowhere else in China was the hatred of the foreigner more 
violent, for here hereditary pride and bigoted conservatism, 
unusually intense even for China, were reinforced by Boxer 
chiefs from the neighbouring province of Shantung, and were 
particularly irritated by the aggressiveness of Roman Catholic 
priests and by the construction of the railroad. It is only no 



The Boxer Uprising 201 

miles from Peking to Paoting-fu. But the schedule was slow 
and the stops long, so that we were six hours in making the 
journey. Arriving at the large, well-built brick station, we 
bumped and splashed in a Chinese cart through narrow, muddy 
streets to the residence of a wealthy Chinese family that had 
deemed a hasty departure expedient when the French and 
British forces entered the city, and whose house had been 
assigned by the magistrate as temporary quarters for the Pres- 
byterian missionaries. 

Protestant mission work at Paoting-fu was begun only about 
thirty years ago by the American Board. The station was 
never a large one, the total nominal force of missionaries up 
to the Boxer outbreak being two ordained married men, Ewing 
and Pitkin, one physician. Dr. Noble, and two single women, 
the Misses Morrill and Gould. In the whole station field 
including the out-stations, there were not more than 300 Chris- 
tians and those were south of a line drawn through the centre 
of the city of Paoting-fu. There were two boarding-schools, 
one for boys and one for girls, both small, and a general 
hospital. 

The China Inland Mission had no mission work at Paoting-fu, 
but as the city is at the head of navigation of the Fu River 
from Tien-tsin and was also at that time the terminus of the 
Peking and Hankow Railway, the Mission made it a point of 
trans-shipment and of formation of cart and shendza trains for 
its extensive work in the Shan-si and Shen-si provinces, and 
kept a forwarding agent there, Mr. Benjamin Bagnall. 

The Presbyterian station was not opened till 1893, and the 
force at the time of the outbreak consisted of three ordained 
men, the Revs. J. Walter Lowrie, J. A. Miller, and F. E. 
Simcox, two medical men, George Yardley Taylor and C. V. R. 
Hodge, and one single woman, Dr. Maud A. Mackay. All 
of the men except Lowrie and Taylor were married, and the 
former had his mother, Mrs. Amelia P. Lowrie, with him. 
With the exception of a dispensary and street chapel in rented 



2o2 New Forces in Old China 

quarters in the city, the station plant was at the compound 
where, on a level tract 660 feet in length by 210 feet in width, 
there were four residences and a hospital and chapel combined, 
with, of course, the usual smaller outbuildings. The only 
educational work, beside one out-station day-school, was a small 
boarding-school for girls recently started and occupying a little 
building originally intended for a stable. 

This was the situation up to the fateful month of June, 1900. 
Rumours of impending trouble were numerous, but mission- 
aries in China become accustomed to threatening placards and 
slanderous reports. Though it was evident that the opposition 
was becoming more bitter, the missionaries did not feel that 
they would be justified in abandoning their work. Several, 
however, were temporarily absent for other reasons. Of the 
Congregational missionaries, Dr. and Mrs. Noble and Mrs. 
Pitkin were on furlough in America and Mr. and Mrs. Ewing 
were spending a few weeks at the seaside resort, Pei-tai-ho, 
so that Mr. Pitkin, Miss Morrill and Miss Gould were the only 
ones left at the station. Of the Presbyterian missionaries 
Mr. and Mrs. Miller were also at Pei-tai-ho, Mrs. Lowrie had 
sailed for America the 26th of May, and Mr. Lowrie, who had 
accompanied her to Shanghai, was at Tien-tsin on his way 
back to Paoting-fu. The missionaries remaining at the station 
were thus five, — Dr. Taylor, Mr. and Mrs. Simcox and their 
three children, and Dr. and Mrs. Hodge. The China Inland 
forwarding agent, Mr. Bagnall, with his wife and little girl, 
was in his house south of the city wall near the American Board 
compound, and with him was the Rev. William Cooper, who 
was on his way to Shanghai after a visit to the Shan-si Mission 
and whose family was then at Chefoo. 

It is impossible to ascertain all the details of the massacre. 
None of the foreigners live to tell the painful story. No other 
foreigners reached Paoting-fu until the arrival of the military 
expedition in October, three and a half months later. The 
Chinese who had participated in the massacre were then in 



The Boxer Uprising 203 

hiding. Spectators were afraid to talk lest they, too, might be 
held guilty. Most of the Chinese Christians who had been 
with the missionaries were killed, while others were so panic- 
stricken that they could remember only the particular scenes 
with which they were directly connected. Moreover, in those 
three and a half months such battles and national commotions 
had occurred, including the capture of Peking and the flight of 
the Emperor, that the people of Paoting-fu had half forgotten 
the murder of a few missionaries in June. 

In these circumstances, full information will probably never 
be obtained, though additional facts may yet turn up from 
time to time. But from all that can be learned, and from the 
piecing together of the scattered fragments of information care- 
fully collected by Mr. Lowrie, who accompanied the expedition, 
it appears that Thursday, June 28th, several Chinese young men 
who had been studying medicine under Dr. Taylor came to 
him at the city dispensary, warned him of the impending 
danger and urged him to leave. When he refused they be- 
sought him to yield, and though several of them were not 
Christians, so strong was their attachment to their teacher that 
they shed tears. 

Dr. Taylor placed the dispensary and its contents, together 
with the adjacent street chapel, in charge of the district magis- 
trate and returned to the mission compound outside the city. 
That very afternoon startling proof was given that foreboding 
was not ill-founded, for the Rev. Meng Chi Hsien, the native 
pastor of the Congregational Church, was seized while in the 
city, his hands cut off, and the next morning he was beheaded. 

The missionaries then decided to leave, drew their silver 
from the local bank and hired carts. But an official assured 
them that there would be no further trouble, and they con- 
cluded to remain. It is doubtful whether they could have es- 
caped anyway, for the very next afternoon, Saturday, June 30th, 
a mob left the west gate of the city, and marching northward 
parallel to the railroad, turned eastward through a small village 



204 New Forces in Old China 

near the mission compound, which has always been the resort 
of bad characters, and attacked the mission between five and 
six o'clock. 

The first report that all the missionaries were together in the 
house of Mr. Simcox is now believed to have been erroneous. 
The Hodges were there, but Dr. Taylor was in his own room 
in the second story of Mr. Lowrie's house. Seizing a magazine 
rifle belonging to Mr. Lowrie, he showed it to the mob and 
warned them not to come nearer. But the Boxers pressed fu- 
riously on, in the superstitious belief that the foreigner's bullet 
could not harm them. Then, being alone, and with the tradi- 
tions of a Quaker ancestry strong within him, he chose rather 
to die himself than to inflict death upon the people he had 
come to save. The Boxers set fire to the house, and the be- 
loved physician, throwing the rifle to the floor, disappeared amid 
the flame and smoke. But the body was not consumed, for a 
Chinese living in a neighbouring village said afterwards that 
he saw it lying in the ruins of the house several days 
later, and that he gave it decent burial in a field near by. But 
there are hundreds of unmarked mounds in that region, and 
when the foreign expedition arrived in October, he was unable 
to indicate the particular one which he had made for Dr. Tay- 
lor's remains. Mr. Lowrie made diligent search and opened a 
number of graves, but found nothing that could be iden- 
tified. 

In the Simcox house, however, the two men were charged 
with the defense of women and children, and to protect them if 
possible from unspeakable outrage, when they realized that per- 
suasion was vain, they felt justified as a last desperate re- 
sort in using force. The testimony of natives is to the eff'ect 
that at least two Boxers were killed in the attack, one of them 
the Boxer chief, Chu Tu Tze, who that very day had received 
the rank of the gilt button from the Provincial Judge as a rec- 
ognition of his anti-foreign zeal and an encouragement to con- 
tinue it. He was shot through the head while vociferously 



The Boxer Uprising 205 

urging the assault from the top of a large grave mound near 
the compound wall. 

The story that little Paul and Francis Simcox, frightened 
by the heat and smoke, ran out of the house and were de- 
spatched by the crowd and their bodies thrown into a well 
now appears to be unfounded. All died together, Mr. and 
Mrs. Simcox and their three children, and Dr. and Mrs. 
Hodge; Mr. Simcox being last seen walking up and down 
holding the hand of one of his children. 

It is at least some comfort that they were spared the out- 
rages and mutilations inflicted on so many of the martyrs of 
that awful summer, for unless some were struck by bullets, 
death came by suffocation in bu'rning houses — swiftly and 
mercifully. No Boxer hand touched them, living or dead, but 
within less than an hour from the beginning of the attack, the 
end came, and the flames did their work so completely that, 
save in the case of Dr. Taylor, nothing remained upon which 
fiendish hate could wreak itself. Husbands and wives died as 
they could have wished to die — together, and at the post of 
duty. 

The next morning the Boxers, jubilant over their success of 
the night before, trooped out to the American Board compound 
in the south suburb. The two ladies took refuge in the chapel, 
while Mr. Pitkin remained outside to do what he could to keep 
back the mob. But he was speedily shot and then decapitated. 
His body, together with the bodies of several of the members 
of the Meng family, was thrown into a hastily-dug pit just out- 
side the wall of the compound, but his head was borne in 
triumph to the Provincial Judge, who was the prime mover in 
the outbreak. He caused it to be fixed on the inside of the 
city wall, not far from the southeast corner and nearly op- 
posite the temple in which the remaining missionaries were im- 
prisoned. There, the Chinese say, it remained for two or 
three weeks, a ghastly evidence of the callous cruelty of a 
people many of whom must have known Mr. Pitkin and the 



2o6 New Forces in Old China 

good work done at the mission compound not far distant. 
When sorrowing friends arrived in October, the head could 
not be found, but it has since been recovered and buried with 
the bodies of the other martyrs. 

The fate of the young women, Miss Morrill and Miss Gould, 
thus deprived of their only protector, was not long deferred. 
After the fall of Mr. Pitkin, they were seized, stripped of all 
their clothing except one upper and one lower garment, and 
led by the howling crowd along a path leading diagonally from 
the entrance of the compound to the road just east of it. Miss 
Gould did not die of fright as she was taken from the chapel, as 
was at first reported, but at the point where the path enters the 
road, a few hundred yards from the chapel, she fainted. Her 
ankles were then tied together, and another cord lashed her 
wrists in front of her body. A pole was thrust between legs and 
arms, and she was carried the rest of the way, while Miss Morrill 
walked, characteristically giving to a beggar the little money at 
her waist, talking to the people, and with extraordinary self-pos- 
session endeavouring to convince her persecutors of their folly. 
And so the procession of bloodthirsty men, exulting in the pos- 
session of two defenseless women one of them unconscious, 
wended its way northward to the river bank, westward to the 
stone bridge, over it and to a temple within the city, not far 
from the southeast corner of the wall. 

Meantime, Mr. Cooper, Mr. and Mrs. Bagnall and their lit- 
tle daughter had begun the day in Mr. Bagnall's house, which 
was a short distance east of the American Board compound, 
and on the same road. Seeing the flames of the hospital, 
which was the first building fired by the Boxers, they fled east- 
ward along the road to a Chinese military camp, about a 
quarter of a mile distant, whose commanding officer had been 
on friendly terms with Mr. Bagnall. But in the hour of need 
he arrested them, ruthlessly despoiled them of their valuables, 
and sent them under a guard to the arch conspirator, the Pro- 
vincial Judge. It is pitiful to hear of the innocent child cling- 



The Boxer Uprising 207 

ing in terror to her mother's dress. But there was no pity in 
the heart of the brutal judge, and the little party was sent to 
the temple where the Misses Morrill and Gould were already 
imprisoned. 

All this was in the morning. A pretended trial was held, 
and about four in the afternoon of the same day, all were 
taken to a spot outside the southeast corner of the city wall, 
and there, before the graves of two Boxers, they were be- 
headed and their bodies thrown into a pit. 

Months passed before any effort was made by the foreign 
armies in Peking to reach Paoting-fu. Shortly after the occu- 
pation of the capital, I wrote to the Secretary of State in Wash- 
ington reminding him again of the American citizens who at 
last accounts were at Paoting-fu, and urging that the United 
States commander in Peking be instructed to send an expedi- 
tion there, not to punish for I did not deem it my duty to dis- 
cuss that phase of the question, but to ascertain whether any 
Americans were yet living and to make an investigation as to 
what had happened. 

Secretary Hay promptly cabled Minister Conger, who soon 
wired back that all the Americans at Paoting-fu had been 
killed. The United States forces took no part in the punitive 
expeditions sent out by the European commanders, partly, no 
doubt, because our Government preferred to act on the theory 
that it would be wiser to give the Chinese Government an op- 
portunity to punish the guilty, and partly because the Adminis- 
tration did not desire the United States to be identified with 
the expeditions which were reputed to equal the Boxers in the 
merciless barbarity of burning, pillaging, ravishing and 
killing. 

Still, it is not pleasing to reflect that though there was an 
ample American force in Peking only no miles away, we 
were indebted to a British general for the opportunity to acquire 
any accurate information as to the fate of eleven Americans. 
An expedition of inquiry, at least, might have been sent. But 



2o8 New Forces In Old China 

as it was, it was not till October that three columns of Europeans 
(still no Americans) left for Paoting-fu. One column was 
French, under General Baillard. The second was British and 
German under Generals Campbell and Von Ketteler, both of 
these columns starting from Tien-tsin. The third column left 
Peking and was composed of British and Italians led by Gen- 
eral Gaselee. The plan was for the three columns to unite as 
they approached the city. But General Baillard made forced 
marches and reached Paoting-fu October 15th, so that when 
General Gaselee arrived on the 17th, he found, to his surprise 
and chagrin, that the French had already taken bloodless pos- 
session of the city. The British and German columns from 
Tien-tsin did not arrive till the 20th and 21st. With them 
came the Rev. J. Walter Lowrie, who had obtained permission 
to accompany it as an interpreter for the British. 

The allied Generals immediately made stern inquisitions into 
the outrages that had been committed, which, of course, in- 
cluded those upon Roman Catholics as well as upon Protes- 
tants. Mr. Lowrie, as the only man who could speak Chinese, 
and the only one, too, who personally knew the Chinese, at 
once came into prominence. To the people, he appeared to 
have the power of life and death. All examinations had to be 
conducted through him. All accusations and evidence had to 
be sifted by him. The guilty tried to shift the blame upon the 
innocent, and enemies sought to pay off old scores of hatred 
upon their foes by charging them with complicity in the massa- 
cres. It would have accorded with Chinese custom if Mr. 
Lowrie had availed himself to the utmost of his opportunity to 
punish the antagonists of the missionaries, especially as his 
dearest friends had been remorselessly murdered and all of his 
personal property destroyed. It was not in human nature to 
be lenient in such circumstances, and the Chinese fully ex- 
pected awful vengeance. 

Great was their amazement when they saw the man whom 
they had so grievously wronged acting not only with modera- 



The Boxer Uprising 209 

tion and strict justice, but in a kind and forgiving spirit. 
Every scrap of testimony was carefully analyzed in order that 
no innocent man might suffer. Instead of securing the execu- 
tion of hundreds of smaller officials and common people, as is 
customary in China in such circumstances, Mr. Lowrie coun- 
selled the Generals to try Ting Jung, who at the time of the 
massacre was Provincial Judge but who had since been pro- 
moted to the post of Provincial Treasurer and acting Viceroy ; 
Kwei Heng the commander of the Manchu garrison, and Weng 
Chan Kwei the colonel in command of the Chinese Imperial 
forces who had seized the escaping Bagnall party and sent them 
back to their doom. The evidence plainly showed that these 
high officials were the direct and responsible instigators of the 
uprising, that they had ordered every movement, and that the 
crowd of smaller officials, Boxers and common people had sim- 
ply obeyed their orders. The three dignitaries were found 
guilty and condemned to death. 

Was ever retributive justice more signally illustrated than in 
the place in which they were imprisoned pending Count von 
Waldersee's approval of the sentence ? The military authori- 
ties selected the place, not with reference to its former uses, of 
which indeed they were ignorant, but simply because it was 
convenient, empty and clean. But it was the Presbyterian 
chapel and dispensary in which Mr. Lowrie had so often 
preached the gospel of peace and good will and the martyred 
Dr. Taylor had so often healed the sick in the name of Christ. 

Not long afterwards, the three officials were led to a level, 
open space, just east of a little clump of trees not far from the 
southwest corner of the city wall, and as near as practicable to 
the place where the missionaries had been beheaded, and there, 
in the presence of all the foreign soldiers, they were themselves 
beheaded. 

Nor was this all, for Chinese officials are never natives of the 
cities they govern, but are sent to them from other provinces. 
Moreover, they usually remain in one place only a few years. 



210 New Forces in Old China 

The people fear and obey them as long as they are officials, but 
often care little what becomes of them afterwards. They had 
not befriended them during their trial and they did not attend 
their execution. The Generals therefore felt that some punish- 
ment must be inflicted upon the city. A Chinese city is proud 
of the stately and ponderous towers which ornament the gates 
and corners of its massive wall and protect the inhabitants 
from foes, human and demoniac. All of these, but two 
comparatively small ones, were blown up by order of the 
foreign generals. The temples which the Boxers had used for 
their meetings, including the one in which the American 
Board and China Inland missionaries had been imprisoned, 
were also destroyed, while the splendid official temple of the city, 
dedicated to its patron deity, was utterly wrecked by dynamite. 

Not till March 23d could memorial services be held. Then 
a party of missionaries and friends came down from Peking. 
The surviving Christians assembled. The new city officials 
erected a temporary pavilion on the site of the Presbyterian 
compound, writing over the entrance arch : "They held the 
truth unto death." Within, potted flowers and decorated 
banners adorned the tables and walls. The scene was solemnly 
impressive. Mr. Lowrie, Dr. Wherry and Mr. Killie and 
others made appropriate addresses to an audience in which 
there were, besides themselves, fifteen missionaries representing 
four denominations, German and French army officers, Chinese 
officials and Chinese Christians. A German military band 
furnished appropriate music and two Roman Catholic priests 
of the city sent flowers and kind letters. The following day 
a similar service was held on the site of the American Board 
compound. 

We sadly visted all these places. It was about the hour of 
the attack that we approached the Presbyterian compound. Of 
the once pleasant homes and mission buildings, not even ruins 
were left. A few hundred yards away, the site could not 
have been distinguished from the rest of the open fields if my 



The Boxer Uprising 2 1 1 

companions had not pointed out marks mournfully intelligible 
to them but hardy recognizable by a stranger. The very 
foundations had been dug up by Chinese hunting for silver, and 
every scrap of material had been carried away. Even the 
trees and bushes had been removed by the roots and used 
for firewood. In front of the site of the Simcox house are a 
few unmarked mounds. All but one contain the fragments of 
the bodies of the Chinese helpers and Christians, and that one, 
the largest, holds the few pieces of bones which were all that 
could be found in the ruins of the house in which the mission- 
aries perished. A few more may yet be found. We ourselves 
discovered five small pieces which Dr. Charles Lewis after- 
wards identified as human bones. But their charred and 
broken condition showed how completely the merciful fire had 
done its work of keeping the sacred remains from the hands of 
those who would have shamefully misused them. The 
American Board and China Inland Mission compounds were 
also in ruins, a chaos of desolation. But as the martyred 
missionaries and native Christians were beheaded and not 
burned, their bodies have been recovered and interred in a long 
row of twenty- three graves. 

The negotiations of foreign Powers with the Chinese regard- 
ing the payment of indemnity were, as might be expected, pro- 
tracted and full of difficulties. Some of the Powers favoured 
extreme demands which, if acceded to, would have ruined the 
Empire or resulted in its immediate partition, even if they did 
not cause a new and more bitter outbreak of hostilities. Other 
Powers, notably the United States, favoured moderate terms, 
holding that China should not be asked to pay sums that were 
clearly beyond her ability. jAfter almost interminable disputes, 
the total sum to be paid by China was, by the final protocol 
signed September 7, 1901, fixed at 450,000,000 taels to be 
paid in thirty-nine annual installments with interest at four per 
cent, on the deferred payments and to be distributed as fol- 
lows : 



212 New Forces in Old China 

Cotmtry Taels 

Germany 90,070,515 

Austria-Hungary 4,003,920 

Belgium 8,484,345 

Spain 135.315 

United States 32,939,055 ' 

France 70,878,240 

Portugal 92,350 

Great Britain • • 50,712,795 

Italy 26,617,005 

Japan 34.793.^00 

Netherlands 782,100 

Russia 130,371,120 

International (Sweden and Norway, ;^62,820) 212,490 



450,000,000 



The treaty was not calculated to make the Chinese think 
more kindly of their conquerors. " Besides the payment of the 
heavy indemnity, the Powers exacted apologies to Germany 
for the murder of its minister and to Japan for the assassination 
of the chancellor of its legation, the erection of monuments in 
foreign cemeteries and the making of new commercial treaties. 
The Chinese were cut to the quick by being told, among other 
things, that they must not import firearms for two years ; 
that no official examinations would be held for five years in the 
cities where foreigners had been attacked ; that an important 
part of the imperial capital would be added to the already 
spacious grounds of the foreign legations and that the whole 
would be fortified and garrisoned by foreign guards ; that the 
Taku forts which defended the entrance to Peking would be 
razed and the railway from the sea to the capital occupied by 
foreign troops ; that members of anti-foreign societies were to be 
executed \ that magistrates even though they were viceroys 
were to be summarily dismissed and disgraced if they did not 
prevent anti-foreign outbreaks and sternly punish their ring- 
leaders ; that court ceremonies in relation to foreign ministers 
must be conformed to Western ideas ; that the Tsung-li Yamen 

^The equivalent 05^24,168,357. 



The Boxer Uprising 213 

(Foreign Office) must be abolished and a new ministry of 
foreign affairs erected, the Wai-wu Pu, which must be regarded 
as the highest of the departments instead of the lowest. 
China's cup of humiliation was indeed full, j 



PART IV 

The Missionary Force and the Chinese 
Church 



XVIII 

BEGINNINGS OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE— 
THE TAI-PING REBELLION AND THE LATER 

DEVELOPMENT 

THE first definite knowledge of the true God appears 
to have come to China with some Jews who are said 
to have entered the Empire in the third century. 
Conjecture has long been busy with the circumstances of that 
ancient migration. That the colony became fairly numerous 
may be inferred from the fact that in 1329 and again in 1354, 
the Jews are mentioned in the Chinese records of the Mongol 
dynasty, while early in the seventeenth century Father Ricci 
claimed to have discovered a synagogue built in 1183. In 
1866, the Rev. Dr. W. A. P. Martin, then President of the 
Tung-wen College at Peking, visited Kai-fung-fu, the centre of 
this Jewish colony, and on a monument he found an inscription 
which included the following passage : — 

" With respect to the religion of Israel, we find that our first ancestor 
was Adam. The founder of the religion was Abraham ; then came Moses 
who established the law, and handed down the sacred writings. During 
the dynasty of Han (b. c. 200-A. D. 226) this religion entered China. 
In the second, year of Hiao-tsung, of the Sung dynasty (A. D. 1 164), a 
synagogue was erected in Kai-fung-fu. Those who attempt to represent 
God by images or pictures do but vainly occupy themselves with empty 
forms. Those who honour and obey the sacred writings know the origin 
of all things. Eternal reason and the sacred writings mutually sustain 
each other in testifying whence men derived their being. All those who 
profess this religion aim at the practice of goodness and avoid the com- 
mission of vice." 1 

• Martin, " A Cycle of Cathay," p. 275. 
217 



2i8 New Forces in Old China 

Dr. Martin writes that he inquired in the market-place : — 

"Are there among you any of the family of Israel ? " "I am one," 
responded a young man, whose face corroborated his assertion ; and then 
another and another stepped forth until I saw before me representatives 
of six out of the seven families into which the colony is divided. They 
confessed with shame and grief that their holy and beautiful house had 
been demolished by their own hands. It had for a long time, they said, 
been in a ruinous condition ; they had no money to make repairs ; they 
had, moreover, lost all knowledge of the sacred tongue ; the traditions of 
the fathers were no longer handed down and their ritual worship had 
ceased to be observed. In this state of things they had yielded to the 
pressure of necessity and disposed of the timbers and stones of that vener- 
able edifice to obtain relief for their bodily wants. . , . Their num- 
ber they estimated, though not very exactly, at from three to four hun- 
dred. , . , No bond of union remains, and they are in danger of be- 
ing speedily absorbed by Mohammedanism or heathenism." ' 

There is something pathetic about that forlorn remnant of the 
Hebrew race. '' A rock rent from the side of Mount Zion 
by some great national catastrophe and projected into the cen- 
tral plain of China, it has stood there while the centuries rolled 
by, sublime in its antiquity and solitude," * 

In his Life of Morrison, Townsend reminds us that the Chris- 
tian Church early realized that it could not ignore so vast a 
nation, while its very exclusiveness attracted bold spirits. As 
far back as the first decade of the sixth century (505 a, d,), 
Nestorian monks appear to have begun a mission in China. 
Romance and tragedy are suggested by the few known facts 
regarding that early movement. Partly impelled by conviction, 
partly driven by persecution, those faithful souls travelled be- 
yond the bounds of the Roman Empire, and rested not till they 
had made the formidable journey across burning deserts and 
savage mountains to the land of Sinim. That some measure 
of success attended their effort is probable. Indeed there are 
hints in the ancient records of numerous churches and of the 

' Martin, " A Cycle of Cathay," pp. 275, 276, 277. 
5 Martin, p. 278. 



Beginnings of the Missionary Enterprise 21 g 

favour of the great Emperor Tai Tsung in 635. But however 
zealous the Nestorians may have been for a time, it is evident 
that they were finally submerged in the sea of Chinese super- 
stition. A quaint monument, discovered in 1625 at Hsi-an-fu, 
the capital of Shen-si, on which is inscribed an outline of the 
Nestorian effort from the year 630 to 781, is the only trace that 
remains of what must have been an interesting and perhaps a 
thrilling missionary enterprise. 

The Roman Catholic effort began in 1293, when John de 
Corvino succeeded in reaching Peking. Though he was ele- 
vated to an Archbishopric and reinforced by several priests, 
this effort, too, proved a failure and was abandoned. 

Two and a-half centuries of silence followed, and then in 
1552, the heroic Francis Xavier set his face towards China, 
only to be prostrated by fever on the Island of Sancian. As 
he despairingly realized that he would never be able to set his 
foot on that still impenetrable land, bemoaned : " Oh, Rock, 
Rock, when wilt thou open ! " and passed away. 

But in 1581, another Jesuit, the learned and astute Matteo 
Ricci, entered Canton in the guise of a Buddhist priest. He 
managed to remain, and twenty years later he went to Peking 
in the dress of a literary gentleman. In him Roman Cathol- 
icism gained a permanent foothold in China, and although it 
was often fiercely persecuted and at times reduced to feeble- 
ness, it never became wholly extinct. Gradually it extended 
its influence until in 1672 the priests reported 300,000 bap- 
tized Chinese, including children. In the nineteenth century, 
the growth of the Roman Church was rapid. It is now 
strongly entrenched in all the provinces, and in most of the 
leading cities its power is great. There are twenty-seven bishops 
and about six hundred foreign priests. The number of com- 
municants is variously estimated, but in 1897 the Vicar Apos- 
tolic of Che-kiang, though admitting that he could not secure 
accurate statistics, estimated the Roman Catholic population 
at 750,000. 



220 New Forces in Old China 

It is not to the credit of Protestantism that it was centuries 
behind the Roman Church in the attempt to Christianize 
China. It was not till 1807, that the first Protestant missionary 
arrived. January 31st, of that year, Robert Morrison, then a 
youth of twenty-five, sailed alone from London under appoint- 
ment of the London Missionary Society (Congregational). As 
the hostile East India Company would not allow a missionary 
on any of its ships, Morrison had to go to New York in order 
to secure passage on an American vessel. As he paid his fare 
in the New York ship owner's office, the merchant said with 
a sneer : " And so, Mr. Morrison, you really expect that you 
will make an impression on the idolatry of the great Chinese 
Empire? " " No, sir," was the ringing reply, " I expect God 
will." 

The ship Trident left New York about May 15th and did 
not reach Canton till September 8th. For two years Morrison 
had to live and study in Canton and the Portuguese settlement 
of Macao with the utmost secrecy, dreading constantly that he 
might be forced to leave. For a time, he never walked the 
streets by daylight for fear of attracting attention, but exercised 
by night. His own countrymen were hostile to his purpose 
and his Chinese language teachers were impatient and insolent. 
It was not till February 20, 1809, the date of his marriage to 
Miss Morton, that his employment as translator by the East 
India Company gave him a secure residence. Still, however, 
he could not do open missionary work, but was obliged to pre- 
sent Christianity behind locked doors to the few Chinese whom 
he dared to approach. In these circumstances, he naturally 
gave his energies largely to language study and translation, 
and in 1810 he had the joy of issuing a thousand copies of a 
Chinese version of the Book of Acts. 

Seven weary, discouraging years passed before Morrison bap- 
tized his first convert, July 16, 18 14, and even then he had to 
administer the sacrament at a lonely spot where unfriendly eyes 
could not look. At his death in 1834, there were only three 



Beginnings of the Missionary Enterprise 221 

Chinese Christians in the whole Empire. Successors carried 
on the effort, but the door was not yet open, and the work was 
done against many obstacles and chiefly in secret till the treaty 
of Nanking, in 1842, opened the five ports of Araoy, Canton, 
Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai. Missionaries who had been 
waiting and watching in the neighbouring islands promptly en- 
tered these cities. Eagerly they looked to the great popula- 
tions in the interior, but they were practically confined to the 
ports named till 1858, when the treaty of Tien-tsin opened 
other cities and officially conceded the rights of missionary res- 
idence and labour. 

The work now spread more rapidly, not only because it was 
conducted in more centres and by a larger force of mission- 
aries, but because it was carried into the interior regions by 
Chinese who had heard the gospel in the ports. 

The Tai-ping Rebellion soon gave startling illustration of the 
perversion of the new force. Begun in 1850 by an alleged 
Christian convert who claimed to have a special revelation from 
heaven as a younger brother of Christ, it spread with amazing 
rapidity until in 1853 it had overrun almost all that part of 
China south of the Yang-tze-kiang, had occupied Nanking and 
Shanghai, and had made such rapid progress northward that it 
threatened the capital itself. It was the most stupendous revo- 
lution in history, shaking to its foundations a vast and ancient 
empire, involving the destruction of an almost inconceivable 
amount of property and, it is said, of the lives of twenty mil- 
lions of human beings. 

If this great rebellion had been wisely guided, it would un- 
doubtedly have changed the history of China and perhaps, by 
this time, of the greater part of Asia, for it proposed to over- 
throw idolatry, to unseat the Manchu dynasty, and to found an 
empire on the principles of the Christian religion. So nearly 
indeed did it attain success that if it had not been opposed by 
European nations, it would probably have attained its object. 
But the weight of their influence was thrown in favour of the 



222 New Forces in Old China 

Government. The American Frederick T. Ward and the 
English Charles George Gordon organized and led the "Ever 
Victorious Army" of Chinese troops against the revolutionists. 
Most significant of all, the leaders of the rebellion itself, freed 
from the restraint which foreigners might perhaps have exerted, 
quickly discarded whatever Christian principles they had started 
with and rapidly demoralized the movement at its centre by 
giving themselves up to an arrogance, vice, and cruelty which 
were worse than those of the government they sought to over- 
turn. Mr. McLane, then United States Minister, truly re- 
ported to Washington : — 

" Whatever may have been the hopes of the enlightened and civilized 
nations of the earth, in regard to this movement, it is now apparent that 
they neither profess nor apprehend Christianity, and whatever may be the 
true judgment to form of their political power, it can no longer be doubted 
that intercourse cannot be established or maintained on terms of equal- 
ity." 

The recapture of Nanking in 1864 marked the final turning 
of the tide, and in an incredibly short time the whole insur- 
rection collapsed. The rebellion, vast as it was, is now after 
all but an episode in the history of the great Empire. But the 
fact that any man on such a platform could so quickly develop 
an insurrection of such appalling proportions significantly sug- 
gests the possibilities of change in China when new movements 
are rightly directed. 

Freed from this gigantic travesty of its true character, the 
growth of Christianity in China became more rapid. The fol- 
lowing table is eloquent : 

1807 o communicants 

1814 I " 

1834 3 

1842 6 " 

1853 350 

1857 1,000 " 

1865 2,000 " 

1876 13.515 



Beginnings of the Missionary Enterprise 223 

1886 28,000 communicants 

1889 37,287 

1893 55.093 

1897 80,682 " 

1903 112,808 « 

The number of Protestant missionaries is 2,950, of whom 
1,233 are men, 868 are wives and 849 are single women. Of 
the whole number, 1,483 are from Great Britain, 1,117 from 
America and 350 from continental Europe. Other interesting 
statistics are 3,500,000 adherents, 2,500 stations and out-sta- 
tions, 3,747 Chinese pastors and helpers, 1,716 day-schools and 
105 higher institutions of learning, twenty- three mission presses 
with an annual output of 107,149,738 pages, thirty-two period- 
icals, 1 24 hospitals and dispensaries treating in a single year 
1,700,452 patients; while the asylums for the orphaned and 
blind and deaf number thirty-two. 

It will thus be seen that Christian missions in China are 
being conducted upon a large scale. It would be difficult to 
overestimate the silent and yet mighty energy represented by 
such work, steadily continued through a long series of years, 
and representing the life labours of thousands of devoted men 
and women and an annual expenditure of hundreds of thou- 
sands of dollars. 

True, the number of Christians is small in comparison with 
the population of the Empire, but the gospel has been aptly 
compared to a seed. It is indeed small, but seeds generally 
are. Lodged in a crevice of a rock, a seed will thrust its 
thread-like roots into fissures so tiny that they are hardly no- 
ticeable. Yet in time they will rend the rock asunder and 
firmly hold a stately tree. Now the seed of the gospel has been 
fairly lodged in the Chinese Empire. It is a seed of indestruc- 
tible vitality and irresistible transforming power. It has taken 
root, and it is destined to produce mighty changes. It was not 
without reason that Christianity was spoken of as a force that 
"turned the world upside down," though it only does this 
where the world was wrong side up. It is significant that the 



224 New Forces in Old China 

word translated "power" in Ronaans i: 16, "The gospel is 
the power of God," is in the Greek the word that we have 
anglicized in common speech as "dynamite." We might, 
therefore, literally translate Paul's statement: "The gospel is 
the dynamite of God." That dynamite has been placed under 
the crust of China's conservatism, and the extraordinary trans- 
formations that are taking place in China are, in part at least, 
the results of its tremendous explosive force. 

The scope of this book does not permit an extended account 
of the missionary movement in China. It has been given in 
many volumes that are easily accessible." ' Nearly all of the 
Protestant churches, European and American, are repre- 
sented and their missionaries are teaching the young, healing 
the sick, translating the Word of God, creating a wholesome 
literature, and preaching everywhere and with a fidelity beyond 
all praise the truths of the Christian religion. Self-sacrificing 
devotion and patient persistence in well-doing are written on 
every page of the history of missions in China, while emergen- 
cies have developed deeds of magnificent heroism. Men and 

• The reader is referred to " The Middle Kingdom," Williams ; 
«« Christian Progress in China," Foster (1889); "Story of the China In- 
land Mission," Guinness; "China and Formosa," Johnston (1897); 
Record of the General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of 
China held in Shanghai, 1890; Report of the Ecumenical Mis- 
sionary Conference held in New York, 1900; "Mission Problems 
and Mission Methods in South China," Gibson ; " Mission Methods in 
Manchuria," Ross; "Women of the Middle Kingdom," McNabb; 
" Among the Mongols," Gilmour ; " East of the Barrier," Graham ; " In 
the Far East," Guinness ; " The Cross and the Dragon," Henry ; " From 
Far Formosa," Mackay ; " Dawn on the Hills of T'ang," Beach ; " China 
and the Chinese," Nevins ; " Our Life in China," Mrs. Nevins ; " Life of 
John Livingston Nevins," Nevins ; " Rex Christus," Smith ; " John 
Kenneth Mackenzie," Bryson ; "Princely Men in the Heavenly King- 
dom," Beach; "James Gilmour of Mongolia," Lovett; "Griffith John," 
Robson ; " Robert Morrison," Townsend ; " With the Tibetans in Tent 
and Temple," Rijnhart. 



II 



Beginnings of the Missionary Enterprise 225 

women have repeatedly endured persecution of the most viru- 
lent kindrather than forsake their converts, and a number "of 
whom the world was not worthy ' ' have laid down their lives 
for conscience' sake. There are few places in all the world 
that are more depressing to a white man than a Chinese city. 
The dreary monotony and squalor of its life are simply inde- 
scribable. Chefoo is usually considered one of the most at- 
tractive cities in China, and the missionaries who reside there 
are regarded as fortunate above their brethren. But even a 
brief stay will convince the most sceptical that nothing but the 
strongest considerations of duty could induce one who has 
freedom of choice to remain any longer than is absolutely 
necessary. Yet for forty-two years, missionaries have lived 
and toiled amid these unattractive surroundings, their houses 
on Temple Hill in the midst of the innumerable graves which 
occupy almost every possible space not actually covered by the 
mission buildings and grounds. But steadily the missionaries 
have toiled on, with faith and courage and love, and they are 
slowly but surely effecting marked changes. One by one, the 
Chinese are being led to loftier views of life and while the old 
city still continues to live in the ancient way, hundreds of 
Chinese famiUes, amid the numerous population outside of the 
walls and in the outlying villages, have begun to conform 
themselves to the new and higher conditions of life represented 
by the Christian missionaries. 

Several schools, a handsome church, a hospital, the only 
institution for deaf mutes in China and a wide-reaching itin- 
erating work, are features of the mission enterprise in Chefoo. 
The visitor will be particularly interested in Dr. Hunter Cor- 
bett's street chapel and museum. The building is situated 
opposite the Chinese theatre and is well adapted to its purpose. 
Dr. Corbett and a helper stand at the door and invite pass- 
ers-by, while a blind boy plays on a baby organ and sings. 
The chapel, which holds about sixty or seventy, is soon filled. 
Dr. Corbett preaches to the people for half an hour and then ad- 



226 New Forces in Old China 

mits them to the museum which occupies several rooms in the 
rear. It is a wonderful place to the Chinese who never weary 
of watching the stuffed tiger, the model railway and the scores 
of interesting objects and specimens that Dr. Corbett has col- 
lected from various lands. Then the people leave by a door 
opening on the back street, another service being held with 
them in the last room. Several audiences a day are thus 
handled. It is hard work, for the men as a rule are from many 
outlying villages, unaccustomed to listening and knowing noth- 
ing of Christianity. But Dr. Corbett speaks with such anima- 
tion and eloquence that not an eye is taken from him. Few 
are converted in the chapel, but friendships are gained, doors 
of opportunity opened, tracts distributed, men led to think, 
and on country tours Dr. Corbett invariably meets people who 
have been to the museum and who cordially welcome him to 
their homes. He declares that after thirty years' experience, 
he thoroughly believes in such work when followed up by 
faithful itineration. Seventy-two thousand attended the chapel 
and museum in the year 1900 in spite of the Boxer trou- 
bles. The chapel is open every day, except that the museum 
is closed on Sundays, and the attendance is now larger than 
ever. 

After dinner, we strolled down to Dr. Nevius' famous or- 
chard. It is a beautiful spot. Here the great missionary 
found his recreation after his arduous labours. Yet even in his 
hours of rest, he was eminently practical. Seeing that the 
Chinese had very little good fruit and believing that he might 
show them how to secure it, he brought from America seeds 
and cuttings, carefully cultivated them and, when they were 
grown, freely distributed the new seeds and cuttings to the 
Chinese, explaining to them the methods of cultivation. To- 
day, as the result of his forethought and generosity, several 
foreign fruits have become common throughout North China. 
But the orchard is deteriorating as the Chinese will not prune 
the trees. They are so greedy for returns that they do not like 



Beginnings of the Missionary Enterprise 227 

to diminish the number of apples or plums in the interest of 
quality. 

At sunset, I made a pilgrimage with Mrs. Nevius to the 
cemetery, where, after forty years of herculean toil, the mighty 
missionary sleeps. We sat for a long time beside the grave, and 
the aged widow, speaking of her own end, which she appeared 
to feel could not be far distant, said that she wished to be buried 
beside her husband and that for this reason she did not want 
to go to the United States, preferring to remain in Chefoo until 
her summons came. 

The scene was very beautiful as the sun set and the moon 
rose above the quiet sea. Standing beside the grave of the 
honoured dead and under the solemn pines, the traveller gains 
a new sense of the beneficence and dignity of the missionary 
force that is operating through such consecrated lives of the 
living and the dead. 



XIX 

MISSIONARIES AND NATIVE LAWSUITS 

IN considering the effects of the operation of this mission- 
ary force, we are at once confronted by the complaint of 
many Chinese that missionaries interfere on behalf of their 
converts in lawsuits. This complaint has been taken up and 
circulated by foreign critics until it has become one of the most 
formidable of the objections to missionary work. The difficulty 
will be understood when we remember that, though the Chinese 
are not a warlike people, they are litigious to an extraordinary 
degree. The struggle for existence in such a densely populated 
country often results in real or fancied entanglements of rights. 
So the Chinese are forever disputing about something, and the 
magistrates and village headmen are beset by clamorous hordes 
who demand a settlement of their alleged grievances. Natu- 
rally the Chinese Christians do not at once outgrow this national 
disposition. Whether they do or not, their profession of Chris- 
tianity makes them an easy mark for the greedy and envious. 
Jealousy and dislike of the native who abandons the faith of his 
fathers and espouses "the foreigner's religion" frequently 
hale him into court on trumped-up charges and the notorious 
prejudice and corruption of the average magistrate often 
result in grievous persecution. The terrified Christian natu- 
rally implores the missionary to save him. It is hard to 
resist such an appeal. But the defendant is not always so 
innocent as he appears to be, and whether innocent or guilty, 
the interference of the foreigner irritates both magistrate 
and prosecutor, while it not infrequently arouses the re- 
sentment of the whole community by giving the idea that 
the Christians are a privileged class who are not amenable 

228 



Missionaries and Native Lawsuits 229 

to the ordinary laws of the land. When, as sometimes hap- 
pens, the Christians themselves get that idea and presume upon 
it, the difficulty becomes acute. Speaking of the Chinese 
talent for indirection, the Rev. Dr. Arthur H. Smith 
says : — 

" It is this which makes it so difficult for the most conscientious and 
discreet missionary to be quite sure that he is in possession of all the 
needed data in any given case. The difficulty in getting at the botton 
facts frequently is that there are no facts available, and, as the pilots say, 
' no bottom.' Every Protestant missionary is anxious to have his flock of 
Christians such as fear God and work righteousness, but in the effort to 
compass this end he not infrequently finds that when endeavouring to in- 
vestigate the ' facts ' in any case he is chasing a school of cuttlefish 
through seas of ink." ' 

An illustration of this occurred during my visit in Ichou-fu. 
A magistrate who needed some wheelbarrows sent out his men 
to impress them. The rule in such cases is that only empty 
barrows can be seized. But the yamen underlings found the 
father of a mission helper with loaded barrows at an inn, stole 
his goods and forced him to pay them a sum of money for the 
privilege of keeping his barrows. The helper complained and 
Dr. C. F. Johnson yielded only so far as to write a guarded 
letter to the magistrate simply stating his confidence that if the 
magistrate found that injustice had been done, he would 
remedy it. But that letter brought the missionary into the 
case and he found himself forced to see it through or "lose 
face ' ' with the Chinese Christians and especially the helper 
who was the son of the man robbed. He soon discovered, 
moreover, that the wronged man was telling contradictory 
stories about the value of goods stolen and the amount of 
money he had to pay to save his barrows. The situation 
speedily became embarrassing and the sorely-tried missionary, 
though he had acted from the best of motives and in the most 
conservative way, vowed that he would never interfere again 
' " Rex Christus," pp. 103, 107. 



230 New Forces in Old China 

in such disputes, as irritation and harm were almost certain to 
result. 

I asked Sir Robert Hart whether in his opinion a missionary 
should seek to obtain justice for a persecuted man or should 
remain silent ? He repHed : — 

" Intervention in matters litigated ought to be absolutely eschewed. Let 
the missionary content himself with making his disciples good men and 
good citizens, and let him leave it to the duly authorized officials to inter- 
pret and apply the law and administer their affairs in their own way. 
Individual Christianity has as many shades and degrees as men's faces. 
There are converts and converts, but even the most godly of them may 
give his neighbour just reason to take offense, and the most saintly among 
them may get involved in the meshes of the law. In such cases let the 
missionary stand aloof. There is, too, such a thing as hypocrisy ; much 
better let the schemer get his deserts than hurt the church's character by 
following sentiment into interference. You ask what is to be done when 
there is persecution to be dealt with ? First of all, I would advise the 
individual or the community to live it down, and, as a last resort, report 
the fact with appropriate detail and proof to the Legation in Peking for 
the assistance and advice of the minister. 'Watch thou in all things, 
endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy 
ministry.' " 

It is customary for the friends of Protestant missionaries to 
answer the critic's charge of interference in native lawsuits by 
stating that it does not justly lie against them, but only against 
the Roman Catholics, the rule of the Protestant missionaries 
being to avoid such interference save in rare and extreme cases. 
Mr. Alexander Michie, however, declares that Protestant mis- 
sionaries are not entitled to such exemption, and that, while 
they may not interfere so frequently as the Catholics, they 
nevertheless interfere often enough to bring them under the 
same condemnation.* 

There are undoubtedly cases of imprudence, but after dili- 
gent inquiry, I am persuaded that the Protestant missionaries 
as a class are keenly alive to the risks of interference in native 
' Address in Shanghai, 1901. 



Missionaries and Native Lawsuits 231 

lawsuits and that they are increasingly careful in this respect. 
They feel with the Rev. J. C. Garritt of Hangchow that "the 
most important form which prejudice has taken of late is the 
belief that foreigners aid or at least countenance their con- 
verts in the carrying of lawsuits through the yamens, or in the 
business of private settlement of disputes, and that if we can 
only practically demonstrate to the public that we are not in 
that business, we shall have overcome one very serious obstacle 
to our work." 

"The policy of the Chinese Government during the past 
few years has been to avoid trouble by letting the foreigner 
have his own way whenever possible. More than once the 
Chinese official has said in substance to non-Christian litigants : 
' You are right and your Christian accusers are wrong ; but if 
I decide in your favour the foreigner will appeal the case to the 
Governor or to the Peking foreign office and I shall suffer.' 
Such things are charged, justly or unjustly, to the account of 
both Protestant and Romanist." ' 

A broad induction as to the facts has been made by the 
Rev. Dr. Paul D. Bergen, President of Shantung Protestant 
University. He wrote to a large number of missionaries rep- 
resenting all Protestant denominations as to their practice and 
convictions regarding this subject. Seventy-three answered 
and Dr. Bergen tabulated their replies. As to the results of 
the concrete cases of intervention cited, fifty-three are reported 
to have been beneficial, twenty-six are characterized as doubt- 
ful, four as mixed and sixty-seven as bad. This leaves the 
remaining cases "suspended in the air," and Dr. Bergen con- 
jectures that "perhaps the missionary felt in such a confused 
mental state at their conclusion, that he was quite unable to 
work out the complicated equation of their results." 

"But surely the result that only fifty-three cases are reported 
to have been of unmistakable benefit, while sixty-seven are set 
down as resulting in evil, ought to give us thought. In short, 
1 The Rev. Dr. L. J. Davies, Tsing-tau. 



232 New Forces in Old China 

in the yamen intercession in behalf of prosecuted Christians, 
it is the dehberate opinion of seventy-three missionaries that, as 
a matter of personal experience, sixty-seven cases have wrought 
only evil, while only fifty-three have been productive of good. 
The balance is on the wrong side. We must decide, in view 
of these replies, that there exists in general rather a pessimistic 
opinion as to the advantages of applying to the yamen in behalf 
of Christians." 

Summing up briefly the results of this inquiry, we note the 
following points, which will embody the views of a very large 
majority of the Protestant missionaries of experience in the 
Empire : — 

" First, — That it is highly desirable to keep church troubles out of the 
yamen, but that there are times when we cannot do so without violating 
our sense of justice and our sense of duty towards an injured brother, 

" Second, — Official assistance is to be sought in such troubles only when 
all other means of relief have been tried in vain. Always seek to settle 
these difficulties out of court. 

" Third, — When official assistance is requested, our bearing should be 
friendly and courteous in the spirit, at least in the first instance, of asking 
a favour of the official, rather than demanding a right. . . . We 
should be extremely careful about trying to bring pressure to bear on an 
official. 

" Fourth, — In the presence of the native Christian, and especially of 
those chiefly concerned, as well as in our own closets, we should cherish 
a deep sense of our absolute dependence on heavenly rather than on 
earthly protection, and remind the Christians that, as Dr. Taylor has so 
tersely put it, their duty is « to do good, suffer for it and take it patiently.' 

" Fifth, — Only in grave cases should matters be pushed to the point of 
controversy or formal appeal. 

" Sixth,— Christians and evangelists should be solemnly warned against 
betraying an arrogant spirit upon the successful termination of any 
trouble. 

" Seventh, — Previous to the carrying of a case before the official, let the 
missionary be sure of his facts. Each case should be patiently, thoroughly 
and firmly examined. Receive individual testimony with judicious re- 
serve. Be not easily blinded by appeals to the emotions. Be especially 
ready to receive any one from the opposition, and give his words due 



Missionaries and Native Lawsuits 233 

weight. Do not be too exclusively influenced by the judgment of any one 
man, however trusted. 

" Eighth, — In the course of negotiation beware of insisting on monetary 
compensation for the injured Christian. In greatly aggravated cases this 
may occasionally be unavoidable. But should it be made a condition of 
settlement, see to it that the damages are under, rather than over, what 
might have been demanded. It is almost sure to cause subsequent 
trouble, both within and without, if a Christian receives money under 
such circumstances. 

" Ninth, — When unhappily involved in a persecution case with the offi- 
cial, we should remember that we are not lawyers, and therefore make no 
stand on legal technicahties, nor allow ourselves to take a threatening at- 
titude, although we may be subjected to provocation ; we should be pa- 
tient, dignified and strong in the truth, making it clear to the official that 
this is all that we seek in order that the ends of justice may be satisfied. 

"Tenth, — It would be well on every fitting occasion to exhort those un- 
der our care to avoid frequenting yamens or cultivating intimacy with 
their inhabitants, unless, indeed, we feel assured that their motive is the 
same as that animating our Lord when He mingled with publicans and 
sinners." 

A widely representative conference of Protestant missionaries 
issued in 1903 the following manifesto and sent copies in 
Chinese to all officials throughout the Empire : 

" Chinese Christians, though church-members, remain in every respect 
Chinese citizens, and are subject to the properly constituted Chinese au- 
thorities. The sacred Scriptures and the doctrines of the church teach 
obedience to all lawful authority and exhort to good citizenship ; and these 
doctrines are preached in all Protestant churches. The relation of a mis- 
sionary to his converts is thus that of a teacher to his disciples, and he 
does not desire to arrogate to himself the position or power of a mag- 
istrate. 

"Unfortunately, it sometimes happens that unworthy men, by making in- 
sincere professions, enter the church and seek to use this connection to 
interfere with the ordinary course of law in China. We all agree that 
such conduct is entirely reprehensible, and we desire it to be known that 
we give no support to this unwarrantable practice. 

" On this account we desire to state that for the information of all that : 
{(7) The Protestant Church does not wish to interfere in law cases. All 
cases between Christians and non-Christians must be settled in the courts 



234 New Forces In Old China 

in the ordinary way. Officials are called upon to administer fearlessly and 
impartially justice to all within their jurisdiction, {b) Native Christians 
are strictly forbidden to use the name of the church or its officers in the 
hope of strengthening their positions when they appear before magistrates. 
The native pastors and preachers are appointed for teaching and exhorta- 
tion, and are chosen because of their worthy character to carry on this 
work. To prevent abuses in the future, all officials are respectfully re- 
quested to report to the missionary every case in which letters or cards us- 
ing the name of the church or any of its officers are brought into court. 
Then proper inquiry will be made and the truth become clear." 

The policy of the British Government on this subject was 
clearly expressed by Earl Granville in his note of August 21, 
187 1, to the British Minister at Peking : 

" The policy and practice of the Government of Great Britain have been 
unmistakable. They have uniformly declared, and now repeat, that they 
do not claim to affiDrd any species of protection to Chinese Christians 
which may be construed as withdrawing them from their native alle- 
giance, nor do they desire to secure to British missionaries any privileges 
or immunities beyond those granted by treaty to other British subjects. 
The Bishop of Victoria was requested to intimate this to the Protestant 
missionary societies in the letter addressed to him by Mr. Hammond by 
the Earl of Clarendon's direction on the 13th of November, 1869, and to 
point out that they would < do well to warn converts that although the 
Chinese Government may be bound by treaty not to persecute, on ac- 
count of their conversion, Chinese subjects who may embrace Christianity, 
there is no provision in the treaty by which a claim can be made on be- 
half of converts for exemption from the obligations of their natural alle- 
giance, and from the jurisdiction of the local authorities. Under the creed 
of their adoption, as under that of their birth, Chinese converts to Chris- 
tianity still owe obedience to the law of China, and if they assume to set 
themselves above those laws, in reliance upon foreign protection, they 
must take the consequence of their own indiscretion, for no British author- 
ity, at all events, can interfere to save them.'" 

The policy of the United States Government was stated with 
equal clearness in a note of the Hon. Frederick F. Low, 
United States Minister at Peking, to the Tsung-li Yamen, dated 
March 2o,|i87i : 



Missionaries and Native Lawsuits 235 

"The Government of the United Slates, while it claims to exercise, un- 
der and by virtue of the stipulations of treaty, the exclusive right of judg- 
ing of the wrongful acts of its citizens resident in China, and of punishing 
them when found guilty according to its own laws, does not assume to 
claim or exercise any authority or control over the natives of China. This 
rule applies equally to merchants and missionaries, and, so far as I know, 
ail foreign Governments having treaties with China adhere strictly to this 
rule. In case, however, missionaries see that native Christians are being 
persecuted by the local officials on account of their religious opinions, in 
violation of the letter and spirit of the twenty-ninth article of the treaty 
between the United States and China, it would be proper, and entirely in 
accordance with the principles of humanity and the teachings of their re- 
ligion, to make ixspectful representation of the facts in such cases to the 
local authorities direct, or through their diplomatic representative to the 
foreign office ; for it cannot be presumed that the Imperial Government 
would sanction any violation of treaty engagement, or that the local of- 
ficials would allow persecutions for opinion's sake, when once the facts are 
made known to them. In doing this the missionaries should conform to 
Chinese custom and etiquette, so far as it can be done without assuming 
an attitude that would be humiliating and degrading to themselves." 

The question is one of the most difficult and delicate of all 
the questions with which the missionary must deal. On the 
one hand, every impulse of justice and humanity prompts him 
to befriend a good man who is being persecuted for right- 
eousness' sake. But on the other hand, sore experience has 
taught him the necessity of caution. The pressure upon him is 
so frequent and trying that it becomes the bete noire of his life. 
The outsider may wisely hesitate before he adds to that pres- 
sure. The citations that have been given show that the mis- 
sionaries themselves understand the question quite as well as 
any one else and that they are competent to deal with it. 



XX 

MISSIONARIES AND THEIR OWN GOVERNMENTS 

THE relation of the missionary to the consular and 
diplomatic representatives of his own government is 
another topic of perennial criticism. Some European 
Governments have persistently and notoriously sought to ad- 
vance their national interest through their missionaries. France 
and Russia have been particularly active in this way, the 
former claiming large rights by virtue of its position as "the 
protector of Catholic missions." The result is that the 
average Chinese official regards all missionaries as political 
agents who are to be watched and feared. Dr. L. J. Davies, a 
Presbyterian missionary, says that he has been repeatedly asked 
his rank as "an American official," whether he "reported in 
person" to his "emperor" on his return to his native land, 
how much salary his government allowed him, and many 
other questions the import of which was manifest. 

The typical consul and minister, moreover, find that no 
small part of their business relates to matters that are brought to 
their attention by missionaries. Sometimes they manifest impa- 
tience on this account. One consul profanely complained to 
me that three-fourths of his business related to the missionary 
question. He forgot, however, that nine-tenths of the nationals 
under his jurisdiction were missionaries, so that in proportion to 
their numbers, the missionaries gave him less trouble than the 
non-missionary Americans. In answer to an inquiry by the 
Rev. Dr. Paul D. Bergen, of the Presbyterian Mission, seventy- 
three missionaries, of from five to thirty years' experience, and 
representing most of the Protestant boards, reported a total of 
only fifty-two applications through consul or minister. The 

236 



Missionaries and Their Own Governments 237 

Hon. John Barrett, formerly Minister of tlie United Stales to 
Siam, writes: "Let us be fair in judging the missionaries. 
Let the complaining merchant, traveller or clubman take the 
beam from his own eye before he demands that the mote be 
taken from the missionary's eye. In my diplomatic experience 
in Siam, 150 missionaries gave me less trouble in five years 
than fifteen merchants gave me in five months." 

Doubtless some diplomats would be glad to have the mis- 
sionaries expatriate themselves. In the United States Senate 
the Hon. John Sherman is reported to have said that " if our 
citizens go to a far- distant country, semi-civilized and bitterly 
opposed to their movements, we cannot follow them there and 
protect them. They ought to come home." Is, then, the 
missionary's business less legitimate than the trader's? Is a 
man entitled to the protection of his country if he goes to the 
Orient to sell whiskey and rifles, but does he forfeit that protec- 
tion if he goes there to preach the gospel of temperance and 
peace ? 

Critics may be reminded that missionaries are American citi- 
zens ; that when gamblers and drunkards and adventurers and 
distillery agents in China claim the rights of citizenship, the 
missionary does not forfeit his rights by a residence in China 
for the purpose of teaching the young, healing the sick, dis- 
tributing the Bible and preaching the gospel of Christ, particu- 
larly when treaties expressly guarantee him protection in the 
exercise of these very privileges. It is odd to find some peo- 
ple insisting that a dissolute trader should be allowed to go 
wherever he pleases and raising a tremendous hubbub if a hair 
of his head is injured, while at the same time they appear to 
deem it an unwarranted thing for a decent man to go to China 
on a mission of peace and good-will. 

While the individual missionary is, of course, free to 
renounce his claim to the protection of home citizenship, 
such renunciation is neither necessary nor expedient. There 
is not the slightest probability that our Government will require 



238 New Forces in Old China 

it, and if it should, the public sentiment of the United States 
would not tolerate such an order for a week. No self-respect- 
ing nation can expatriate its citizens who go abroad to do good. 
The policy of the United States was indicated in the note of 
the Hon. J. C. B. Davis, acting Secretary of State, to the 
United States Minister at Peking, October 19, 1871. 

" The rights of citizens of the United States in China are well defined 
by treaty. So long as they attend peaceably to their affairs they are to 
be placed on a common footing of amity and good-will with subjects of 
China, and are to receive and enjoy for themselves, and everything apper- 
taining to them, protection and defense from all insults and injuries. 
They have the right to reside at any of the ports open to foreign com- 
merce, to rent houses and places of business, or to build such upon sites 
which they have the right to hire. They have secured to them the right 
to build churches and cemeteries, and they may teach or worship in those 
churches without being harassed, persecuted, interfered with, or molested. 
These are some of the rights which are expressly and in terms granted to 
the United States, for their citizens, by the Treaty of 1858. If I rightly 
apprehend the spirit of the note of the Foreign Office, and of the regula- 
tions which accompany it, there is, to state it in the least objectionable 
form, an apprehension in the yamen that it may become necessary to cur- 
tail some of these rights, in consequence of the alleged conduct of French 
missionaries. This idea cannot be entertained for one moment by the 
United States." 

This position was given new emphasis by the note sent by 
Secretary of State John Hay to the Hon. Horace Porter, United 
States Ambassador to France, in response to a communication 
from the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris in 1903. 
In this note Mr. Hay said : 

" The Government holds that every citizen sojourning or travelling 
abroad in pursuit of his lawful affairs is entitled to a passport, and the du- 
ration of such sojourn the department does not arrogate to itself the right 
to limit or prescribe." 

The governments of continental Europe have repeatedly 
shown themselves quick to resent an infringement upon the 



Missionaries and Their Own Governments 239 

treaty rights of their subjects who are in China as missionaries. 
The Hon. Thomas Francis Wade, British Minister at Peking, 
wrote to Minister Wen Hsiang in June, 1871 : — "The British 
Government draws no distinction between tlie missionaries and 
any other of its non-official subjects." This sentiment was em- 
phatically reiterated by Earl Granville in a note from the for- 
eign office in London to Mr. Wade dated August 21, 1871 : 

" Her Majesty's Government cannot allow the claim that the mission- 
aries residing in China must conform to the laws and customs of China to 
pass unchallenged. It is the duty of a missionary, as of every other British 
subject, to avoid giving offense as far as possible to the Chinese authori- 
ties or people, but he does not forfeit the rights to which he is entitled un- 
der the treaty as a British subject because of his missionary character." 

But while this is the only possible policy for a government, 
it is surely reasonable to expect that the persons concerned will 
exercise moderation and prudence in their demands. The 
China Island Mission does not permit its missionaries to appeal 
to their Government officials without special permission from 
headquarters. Many missionaries of other societies would 
probably resent such a limitation of their liberty as citizens. 
But as the act of the individual often involves others, it might 
be well to make the approval of the station necessary, and, 
wherever practicable, of the mission. Nine-tenths of the 
missionaries do not and will not unnecessarily write or 
telegraph for the intervention of minister or consul. But the 
tenth man may be benefited by the counsel of his colleagues 
who know or who may be easily acquainted with the facts. 
The American Presbyterian Board in a formal action has ex- 
pressed the wise judgment that "appeals to the secular arm 
should always and everywhere be as few as possible." It is 
not in the civil or military power of a country to give the 
missionary success. In the crude condition of heathen 
society, the temptation is sometimes strong to appeal for aid to 
" the secular arm " of the home government. Occasions may 



240 New Forces in Old China 

possibly arise in which it will be necessary to insist upon rights. 
Nevertheless, as a rule, it will be well to remember that "the 
weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through 
God," and that " the servant of the Lord must not strive, but 
be gentle unto all men." The argument of the sword is 
Mohammedan, not Christian. The veteran Rev. J. Hudson 
Taylor holds that in the long run appeals to home governments 
do nothing but harm. He says he has known of many riots 
that have never been reported and of much suffering endured 
in silence which have "fallen out rather to the furtherance of 
the gospel," and that "if we leave God to vindicate our 
cause, the issue is sure to prove marvellous in spirituality." 

The critics have vociferously charged that after the sup- 
pression of the Boxer uprising, the missionaries greatly em- 
barrassed their goverments by demanding bloody vengeance 
upon the Chinese. It may indeed be true that among the 
thousands of Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries in 
China, some temporarily lost their self-control and gave way to 
anger under the awful provocation of ruined work, burned 
homes, outraged women and butchered Chinese Christians. 
How many at home would or could have remained calm in 
such circumstances ? But it is grossly unjust to treat such 
excited utterances as representative of the great body of 
missionary opinion. The missionaries went to China and 
they propose to stay there because they love and believe in the 
Chinese, and it is very far from their thought to demand un- 
due punishment for those who oppose them. They sensibly 
expected a certain amount of opposition from tradition, 
heathenism, superstition and corruption, and they are not dis- 
posed to call for unmanly or unchristian measures when that 
trouble falls upon them which fell in even greater measure on 
the Master Himself. 

It is true that some of the missionaries felt that the ring- 
leaders of the Boxers, including those in high official position 
who more or less secretly incited them to violence, should be 



Missionaries and Their Own Governments 241 

punished. But they were not thinking of revenge, so much as 
of the welfare of China, the restoration to power of the best ele- 
ment among the Chinese, and the reasonable security of 
Chinese Christians and of foreigners who have treaty rights. 
Many missionaries feel that there is no hope for China save in 
the predominance of the Reform Party, and that if the re- 
actionaries are to remain in control, the outlook is dark indeed, 
not so much for the foreigner as for China itself. The men 
who were guilty of the atrocities perpetrated in the summer of 
1900 violated every law, human and divine, and some of the 
missionaries demanded their punishment only in the same 
spirit as the ministers and Christian people of the United 
States who with united voice demanded the punishment of the 
four young men in Paterson, New Jersey, who had been 
systematically outraging young girls. 

Nevertheless, as to the whole subject of the policy which 
should be adopted by our Government in China, I believe that 
it would be wise for both the missionaries and the mission 
boards to be cautious in proffering advice, and to leave the 
responsibility for action with the lawfully constituted civil 
authorities upon whom the people have placed it. Govern- 
ments have better facilities for acquiring accurate information 
as to political questions than missionaries have. They can see 
the bearings of movements more clearly than those who are 
not in political life and can discern elements in the situation 
that are not so apparent to others. Moreover, they must bear 
the blame or praise for consequences. They can ask for 
missionary opinion if they want it. Generations of protest 
against priestly domination, chiefly by Protestant ministers 
themselves, have developed in both Europe and America a dis- 
position to resent clerical interference in political questions. 
This is particularly true of matters in Asia, where the political 
situation is so delicate. The opinions publicly expressed by 
the missionaries as to the policy, which, in their judgment, 
should be adopted by our Government and by the European 



242 New Forces in Old China 

Powers have included not only many articles of individual 
missionaries in newspapers and magazines, but formal com- 
munications of bodies or committees of missionaries. Con- 
spicuous examples are the protests of missionaries assembled in 
Chefoo and Shanghai in 1900 against the decision of the 
American Government to withdraw its troops from Peking, to 
recognize the Empress Dowager and to omit certain officials 
from the list of those who were to be executed or banished, and, 
in particular, the letter addressed by "the undersigned 
British and American missionaries representative of societies 
and organizations that have wide interests in China to their 
Excellencies the Plenipotentiaries of Great Britain and the 
United States accredited to the Chinese Government." 

These actions were taken by men whose character, ability 
and knowledge of the Chinese entitle them to great weight, and 
who were personally affected in the security of their lives and 
property and in the interests of their life-work by the policy 
adopted by their respective Governments. All were citizens who 
did not abdicate their citizenship by becoming missionaries, 
and whose status and rights in China, as such, have been 
specifically recognized by treaty. All, moreover, expressed 
their views with clearness, dignity and force. From the view- 
point of right and privilege, and, indeed, political duty as 
citizens, they were abundantly justified in expressing their 
opinions. 

On the other hand, there are many friends of missions who 
doubt whether formal declarations of judgment " as mission- 
aries," on political and military questions, were accorded much 
influence by diplomats ; whether they did not increase the 
popular criticism of missionaries to an extent which more than 
counterbalanced any good that they accomplished; whether 
they did not identify the missionary cause with " the consul 
and gunboat" policy which Lord Sahsbury charged upon it; 
and whether they did not prejudice their own future influence 
over the Chinese and strengthen the impression that the mis- 



Missionaries and Their Own Governments 243 

sionaries are " political emissaries." In reply to my inquiry as 
to his opinion, Sir Robert Hart expressed himself as follows : — 

" As for punitive measures, etc., I have really no personal knowledge 
of the action taken by American missionaries, and hearsay is not a good 
foundation for opinion. It is said that vindictive feeling rather than ten- 
der mercy has been noticed. But even if so, it cannot be wondered at, so 
cruel were the Chinese assailants when they had the upper hand. The 
occasion has been altogether anomalous, and it is only at the parting of 
the ways the difference of view comes in. That what was done merited 
almost wholesale punishment is a view most will agree in — eyes turned to 
the past — but when discussion tries to argue out what will be best for the 
future, some will vote for striking terror, and others for trusting more to 
the more slowly working but longer lasting effect of mercy. I do not be- 
lieve any missionary has brought anybody to punishment who did not 
richly deserve it. But some people seem to feel it would have been wiser 
for ministers of the gospel to have left to ' governors ' the ' punishment of 
evil-doers.' For my part, I cannot blame them, for without their assistance 
much that is known would not have been known, and, although numbers 
of possibly innocent, inoffensive and non-hostile people may have been 
overwhelmed in this last year's avalanche of disaster, there are still at 
large a lot of men whose punishment would probably have been a good 
thing for the future. One can only hope that their good luck in escaping 
may lead them to take a new departure, and with their heads in the right 
direction." > 

Wisely or unwisely — the former, I venture to think — the in- 
terdenominational conference of American mission boards hav- 
ing work in China, held in 1900, declined to make representa- 
tions to our Government on questions of policy during the Boxer 
uprising. They necessarily had much correspondence with 
Washington regarding the safety of missionaries during the 
siege, but when I inquired of Secretary of State Hay as to the 
accuracy of the later newspaper charges that mission boards 
were urging the Government to retaliatory measures, he promptly 
replied: "No communications of this nature have been re- 
ceived from the great mission boards or from their authorized 
representatives. ' ' 

* Letter to the author with permission to print, July, 190 1. 



244 New Forces in Old China 

But let us hear the missionaries themselves on this subject. 
An interdenominational committee, headed by the Rev. Dr. 
Calvin W. Mateer, prepared a reply to this criticism, which has 
been circulated throughout China and has received the assent 
of so large a number of missionaries of all churches and nation- 
alities that it may be taken as representing the views of fully 
nine-tenths of the whole body of Protestant missionaries in the 
Empire. This letter should be given the widest possible cur- 
rency, as expressing the views of men who are the peers of any 
equal number of Christian workers in the world. It is dated 
May 24, 1 90 1, and, after discussing the question of the respon- 
sibility for the Boxer uprising, the letter continues : 

" With reference to the second point — that we have manifested an un- 
christian spirit m suggesting the punishment of those who were guilty of 
the massacre of foreigners and native Christians — we understand that the 
criticism apphes chiefly to the message sent by the public meeting held in 
Shanghai in September last. 

"I, It should, in the first place, be borne in mind that the resolutions 
passed at that meeting w^ere called for by the proposal of the Allies to 
evacuate Peking immediately after the relief of the Legations. It was 
felt, not only by missionaries but by the whole of the foreign residents in 
China, that such a course would be fraught with the greatest disaster, in- 
asmuch as it would give sanction to further lawlessness. 

« 2. Further it must be remembered that, while suggesting that a sat- 
isfactory settlement ' should include the adequate punishment of all who 
were guilty of the recent murders of foreigners and jnative Christians,' 
it was left to the Powers to decide what that ' adequate punishment ' 
should be. Moreover, when taking such measures as were necessary, 
they were urged to ' make every effort to avoid all needless and indis- 
criminate slaughter of Chinese and destruction of their property.' 

" 3. By a strange misunderstanding we find that this suggestion has 
been interpreted as though it were animated by an unchristian spirit of 
revenge. With the loss of scores of friends and colleagues still fresh upon 
us, and with stories of cruel massacres reaching us day by day, it would 
not have been surprising had we been betrayed into intemperate ex- 
pressions; but we entirely repudiate the idea which has been read into our 
words. If governments are the ministers of God's righteousness, then 
surely it is the duty of every Christian Government not only to uphold the 



Missionaries and Their Own Governments 245 

right but to put down the wrong, and equally the duty of all Christian 
subjects to support them in so doing. For China, as for Western nations, 
anarchy is the only alternative to law. Both justice and mercy require 
the judicial punishment of the wrong-doers in the recent outrages. For 
the good of the people themselves, for the upholding of that standard of 
righteousness which they acknowledge and respect, for the strengthening 
and encouragement of those officials whose sympathies have been through- 
out on the side of law and order, and for the protection of our own help- 
less women and children and the equally helpless sons and daughters of 
the Church, we think that such violations of treaty obligations, and such 
heartless and unprovoked massacres as have been carried out by official 
authority or sanction, should not be allowed to pass unpunished. It is 
not of our personal wrongs that we think, but of the maintenance of law 
and order, and of the future safety of all foreigners residing in the interior 
of China, who, it must be remembered, are not under the jurisdiction of 
Chinese law, but, according to the treaties, are immediately responsible to, 
and under the protection of, their respective Governments." 

The reply rather pathetically concludes : 

" It is unhappily the lot of missionaries to be misunderstood and spoken 
against, and we are aware that in any explanation we now offer we add 
to the risk of further misunderstanding; but we cast ourselves on the for- 
bearance of our friends, and beg them to refrain from hasty and ill-formed 
judgments. If, on our part, there have been extreme statements, if indi- 
vidual missionaries have used intemperate words or have made demands 
out of harmony with the spirit of our Divine Lord, is it too much to ask 
that the anguish and peril through which so many of our number have 
gone during the last six months should be remembered, and that the whole 
body should not be made responsible for the hasty utterances of the 
few ? " 

A perplexing phase of the relation of missionaries to their 
own governments develops in times of disturbance. Should 
missionaries remain at their stations when their minister or con- 
sul think that they ought to withdraw to the port where they 
can be more easily protected ? Should they make journeys 
that the consul deems imprudent or return to an abandoned 
station before he regards the trouble as ended ? This question 
became acute in connection with the Boxer outbreak when mis- 



246 New Forces in Old China 

sionaries sometimes differed with ministers or consuls as to 
whether they should go or stay. On the one hand it may be 
urged that missionaries are under strong obligations to attach 
great weight to the judgment of their minister or consul. If 
they receive the benefits and protection of citizenship, and if 
by their acts they may involve their governments, they should 
recognize the right of the authorized representatives of those 
governments to counsel them. The presumption should be in 
favour of obedience to that counsel, and it should not be dis- 
regarded without clear and strong reasons. 

But the fact cannot be ignored that, whatever may be the 
personal sympathies of individual ministers or consuls, diplo- 
macy as such considers only the secondary results of missions, 
and not the primary ones. Government officials, speaking on 
missionary work, almost invariably dwell on its material and 
civilizing rather than its spiritual aspects. They do not, as 
officials, feel that the salvation of men from sin and the com- 
mand of Christ to evangelize all nations are within their sphere. 
Moreover, diplomacy is proverbially and necessarily cautious. 
Its business is to avoid risks, and, of course, to advise others to 
avoid them. The political situation, too, was undeniably un- 
certain and delicate. The future was big with possibility of peril. 
In such circumstances, we should expect diplomacy to be anx- 
ious and to look at the whole question from the prudential view- 
point. 

But the missionary, like the soldier, must take some risks. 
From Paul down, missionaries have not hesitated to face them. 
Christ did not condition His great command upon the approval 
of Caesar. It was not safe for Morrison to enter China, and for 
many years missionaries in the interior were in grave jeopardy. 
But devoted men and women accepted the risk in the past, and 
they will accept it in the future. They must exercise common 
sense. And yet this enterprise is unworldly as well as worldly, 
and when the soldier boldly faces every physical peril, when 
the trader unflinchingly jeopardizes life and limb in the pursuit 



Missionaries and Their Own Governments 247 

of gold — I found a German mining engineer and his wife liv- 
ing alone in a remote village soon after the Boxer excitement — 
should the missionary be held back ? 

If, however, after full and careful deliberation, missionaries feel 
that it is their duty to disregard the advice of their minister or 
consul, they should consult their respective boards and if the 
boards sustain them, all concerned should accept responsibility 
for the risks involved. 

But if missionaries do not permit governments to control 
their movements, they should not be too exacting in their de- 
mands on them when trouble comes. The Rev. Dr. Henry 
M. Field once said : — 

" A foreign missionary is one who goes to a strange country to preach 
the gospel of our salvation. That is his errand and his defense. The 
civil authorities are not presumed to be on his side. If he offends the 
sensibiUties of the people to virhom he preaches, he is supposed to face 
the consequences. If he cannot vi^in men by the Word and his own love 
for their souls, he cannot call on the civil or military powers to convert 
them. Nor is the missionary a merchant, in the sense that he must have 
ready recourse to the courts for a recouping of losses or the recovery of 
damages. Commercial treaties cannot cover all our missionary enter- 
prises. Confusion of ideas here has confounded a good many fine plans 
and zealous men. It is a tremendous begging of the whole question to 
insist on the nation's protection of the men who are to subvert the 
national faith. Property rights and preaching rights get closely en- 
twined, and it is difificult to untangle them at times, but the distinc- 
tion is definite and the difference often fundamental. By confusing 
them we weaken the claims of both. And when our Christian preachers 
get behind a mere property right in order to defend their right to preach 
a new religion, they dishonour themselves and defame the faith they 
profess. To get behind diplomatic guaranties in order to evangelize the 
nations is to mistake the sword for the Spirit, to rely on the arm of flesh 
and put aside the help of the Almighty." 

That is, in my judgment, stating the case rather strongly. 
Doubtless Dr. Field did not mean that governments would be 
justified in discriminating against missionaries and he would 



248 New Forces in Old China 

probably have been one of the first to protest if they had done 
so. He was addressing missionaries, reminding them that they 
could do in liberty what the governments could not do in law, 
and exhorting against any disposition to depend unduly upon 
the sword of the secular arm. At any rate, he was a devoted 
friend of missions and as such his words are deserving of 
thoughtful consideration. 



XXI 

RESPONSIBILITY OF MISSIONARIES FOR THE 
BOXER UPRISING 

CRITICS vociferously assert that the missionaries were 
chiefly responsible for the Boxer uprising and for most 
of the prejudice of the Chinese against foreigners. As 
to the general accuracy of this charge, the reader has doubtless 
formed some impression from what has been said in the pre- 
ceding chapters regarding the objects and methods of foreign 
trade and foreign politics. Still, it is but fair to remember that 
there are 3,348 missionaries in China, representing almost every 
European and American nationality and no less than nine 
Roman Catholic and fifty-eight Protestant boards. As might 
be expected, the standard of appointment varies. A few 
boards, while insisting upon high spiritual qualifications, do 
not insist upon equal qualifications of some other kinds, while 
in all societies an occasional missionary proves to be visionary 
and ill-balanced. But in the great majority of the boards, 
the standard of appointment is very high, and while occasional 
mistakes are made, yet as a rule the missionaries represent the 
best type of Protestant Christianity. They are, as a class, 
men and women of education, refinement and abiUty — in every 
respect the equals and as a rule the superiors of the best class 
of non-missionary Europeans and Americans in China. 

Now it is manifest that criticisms which may be true of some 
missionaries may not be true of the missionary body as a 
whole. As a matter of fact, the average critic has in mind 
either the Roman Catholic priests or the members of some 
independent society. This is notably true of Michie. Many 
of the charges are not true even of them, but of the charges 

249 



250 New Forces in Old China 

that I have seen that have any foundation at all, nine-tenths 
do not apply to the missionaries of church boards. It is al- 
ways fair, therefore, to ask a critic, " To which class of mission- 
aries do you refer ? " 

The clearest line of distinction is between the Protestants 
and the Roman Catholics. The latter are numerous. They 
have been in China the longest. They have the largest follow- 
ing, and their methods are radically different from those of the 
Protestant missionaries. It is not denied that some of the 
priests are high-minded, intelligent men and that some of the 
Protestants lack wisdom. But comparing the two classes 
broadly, no one who is at all conversant with the facts will re- 
gard the Protestants as inferior. I do not wish to be unjust to 
the Roman Catholic missionaries in China. Many good things 
might be said regarding the work which some of them are do- 
ing. I personally called at several Roman Catholic stations in 
various parts of the Empire and I have vivid recollections of 
the kindness with which I was received, while more than once 
I was impressed by the unmistakable evidences of devotion and 
self-sacrifice. It was pleasant to hear many Protestant mission- 
aries declare that they had never heard a suspicion as to the 
moral character of the priests. I did not hear any in all north 
China. The lives of the Roman Catholic missionaries are hard 
and narrow and they have no relief in the companionships of 
wife and children, in furloughs or in medical attendance, for 
they have no medical missionaries, while not infrequently the 
priest lives alone in a village. Dead to the world, with no 
families and no expectation of returning to their native land, 
trained from boyhood to a monastic life, drilled to unquestion- 
ing obedience and to few personal needs, their ambition is not 
to get anything for themselves but to strengthen the Church 
for which the individual priest unhesitatingly sacrifices himself, 
content if by his complete submergence of his own interests he 
has helped to make her great. With such men, Rome is a 
mighty power in Asia. But the sincere, devoted man may be 



Responsibility of Missionaries 25 1 

even more dangerous if his zeal is wrongly directed, and the 
question under discussion now is not the personal character of 
individuals, but the general policy of the Church. As to 
the character and effects of this policy I found a remarkable 
unanimity of opinion in China, and I could easily produce 
from my note-books the names of scores of credible witnesses 
to the substantial accuracy of my position. 

Whatever may be said in favour of the Roman Catholics, it 
is unquestionable that their methods are far more irritating to 
the Chinese than the methods of the Protestants. Led by able 
and energetic bishops, the priests acquire all possible business 
property, demand large rentals, build imposing religious plants, 
and baptize or enroll as catechumens all sorts of people. It is 
notorious that the Roman Catholic priests quite generally 
adopt the policy of interference on behalf of their converts. 
Through the Minister of France at Peking they obtained an 
Imperial Edict, dated March 15, 1899, granting them official 
status, so that the local priest is on a footing of equality with 
the local magistrate, and has the right of full access to him at 
any time. Whether or not intended by the Roman Catholic 
Church, the impression is almost universal in China among 
natives and foreigners alike that, if a Chinese becomes a 
Catholic, the Church will stand by him through thick and 
thin, in time and in eternity. There are, indeed, exceptions. 
Dr. Johnson, of Ichou-fu, told me of a Roman Catholic Chris- 
tian who, during the Boxer troubles, stealthily moved his goods 
into Ichou-fu, burned his house, and then put in a claim for 
indemnity. The heathen neighbours, when asked to pay, in- 
formed the priest. He summoned the man, who confusedly 
said that if he had not burned the house, the Boxers would have 
done so, and he thought he had better do it at a convenient 
time as it was sure to be burned anyway. The priest promptly 
decided that he must suffer the loss himself. So the priests do 
not always stand by their converts whether right or wrong. 

No one, however, who is familiar with the general course of 



252 New Forces in Old China 

the Roman Catholic Church in China, will deny that, as a 
rule, the priests boldly champion the cause of their converts. 
This is one secret of Rome's great and rapidly growing power 
in China, and unquestionably, too, it is one of the chief causes 
of Chinese hostility to missions. After many years of obser- 
vation, Dr. J. Campbell Gibson writes : — 

" In the missions of the Church of Rome, they (treaty rights) are 
systematically, and I am afraid one must say unscrupulously, used for the 
gathering in of large numbers of nominal converts, whose only claim to 
the Christian name is their registration in lists kept by native catechists, 
in virhich they are entered on payment of a small fee, without regard to 
their possession of any degree of Christian knowledge or character. In 
the event of their being involved in any dispute or lawsuit, the native 
catechists or priests, and even the foreign Roman Catholic missionaries, 
take up their cause and press it upon the native magistrates. Not infre- 
quently a still worse course is pursued. Intimation is sent round the 
villages in which there are large numbers of so-called Catholic converts, 
and these assemble under arms to support by force the feuds of their 
co-religionists. The consequence is that the Catholic missions in southern 
China, and I believe in the north also, are bitterly hated by the Chinese 
people and by their magistrates. By terrorizing both magistrates and 
people, they have secured in many places a large amount of apparent 
popularity ; but they are sowing the seeds of a harvest of hatred and bit- 
terness which may be reaped in deplorable forms in years to come." ^ 

In my own interviews with Chinese officials, it was my custom 
to lead the conversation towards the motives of those who had 
attacked foreigners during the Boxer uprising, and without ex- 
ception the officials mentioned, among other causes, the inter- 
ference of Roman Catholic priests with the administration of 
the law in cases affecting their converts. In several places in 
the interior, this was the only reason assigned. 

Said an intelligent Chinese official in Shantung : " The 
whole trouble is not with the Protestants but with the Catholics. 
Protestant Christians do not go to law so often, and when they 

1 " Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South China," pp. 309, 
310. 



Responsibility of Missionaries 253 

do, the Protestant missionary does not, as a rule, interfere unless 
he is sure they are right. But the Catholic Christians are 
constantly involved in lawsuits, and the priests invariably stand 
by them right or wrong. The priests seem to think that their 
converts cannot be wrong. The result is that many Chinese 
join the Roman Catholic Church to get the help of the priests 
in the innumerable lawsuits that the Chinese are always waging. 
And it is not surprising in such circumstances that Catholic 
Christians are a bad lot." When I asked the magistrate of 
Paoting-fu why the people had killed such kindly and help- 
ful neighbours as the Congregational and Presbyterian mission- 
aries, he replied: — "The people were angered by the inter- 
ference of the Roman Catholics in their lawsuits. They felt 
that they could not obtain justice against them, and in their 
frenzy they did not distinguish between Catholics and Protes- 
tants." The Roman Catholic Mission in the prefecture of 
Paoting-fu, it should be remembered, is about two centuries 
old, and the Catholic population is about 12,000, so that the 
few hundreds of converts who have been gathered in the recent 
work of the Protestants are very small in comparison, while the 
splendid cathedral of the Roman Church, the spectacular char- 
acter of its services and the official status and aggressiveness 
of its priests intensify the disproportion. The term Christian, 
therefore, to the average man of Paoting-fu naturally means a 
Roman Catholic rather than a Protestant. 

Perhaps we should make some allowance for Oriental forms 
of statement to one who was known to be a Protestant. The 
politeness of an Oriental host to a guest is not always limited 
by veracity, and it is possible that to Roman Catholics the 
officials may blame the Protestants. But such unanimity of 
testimony among so many independent and widely separated 
officials must surely count for something, especially when the 
grounds for it are so notorious. Undoubtedly, there are many 
sincere Christians among the Roman Catholic Chinese, but 
judging from the almost universal testimony that I heard in 



254 New Forces in Old China 

China, the Roman Church is a veritable cave of AduUam for 
unscrupulous and revengeful Chinese. 

The evidence does not rest upon the testimony of Protestants 
alone. If any one will take the trouble to look up the diplo- 
matic correspondence on this subject, he will find ample and 
convincing testimony. February 9, 187 1, the Tsung-li Yamen 
addressed to the Foreign Legations at Peking a memorandum 
together with eight propositions, the whole embodying the 
complaints and objections of the Chinese Government to mis- 
sionaries and their work in China, and suggesting certain regu- 
lations for the future. This memorandum included the follow- 
ing paragraph : — 

" The missionary question affects the whole question of pacific relations 
with foreign powers — the whole question of their trade. As the Minister 
addressed cannot but be well aware, wherever missionaries of the Romish 
profession appear, ill-feeling begins between them and the people, and for 
years past, in one case or another, points of all kinds on which they are 
at issue have been presenting themselves. In earlier times when the 
Romish missionaries first came to China, styled, as they were, * Si Ju,' 
the Scholars of the West, their converts no doubt for the most part were 
persons of good character; but since the change of ratifications in i860, 
the converts have in general not been of a moral class. The result has 
been that the religion that professes to exhort men to virtue has come to 
be lightly thought of ; it is in consequence, unpopular, and its unpopularity 
is greatly increased by the conduct of the converts who, relying on the 
influence of the missionaries, oppress and take advantage of the common 
people (the non-Christians) : and yet more by the conduct of the mission- 
aries themselves, who, when collisions between Christians and the people 
occur, and the authorities are engaged in dealing with them, take part 
with the Christians, and uphold them in their opposition to the authori- 
ties. This undiscriminating enlistment of proselytes has gone so far that 
rebels and criminals of China, pettifoggers and mischief-makers, and such 
like, take refuge in the profession of Christianity, and covered by this 
position, create disorder. This has deeply dissatisfied the people, and 
their dissatisfaction long felt grows into animosity, and their animosity 
into deadly hostility. The populations of different localities are not aware 
that Protestantism and Romanism are distinct. They include both under 
the latter denomination. Tliey do not know that there is any distinction 



Responsibility of Missionaries 255 

between the nations of the West. They include them all under one de- 
nomination of foreigners, and thus any serious collision that occurs equally 
compromises all foreigners in China. Even in the provinces not con- 
cerned, doubt and misgiving are certain to be largely generated." 

The memorandum and its attached propositions are interest- 
ing reading as showing the impression which the Chinese Gov- 
ernment had of Roman Catholic missionary work. The third 
proposition included the following statement : — 

"They (Roman Catholic converts) even go so far as to coerce the au- 
thorities and cheat and oppress the people. And the foreign missionaries, 
without inquiring into facts, conceal in every case the Christian evil-doer, 
and refuse to surrender him to the authorities for punishment. It has 
even occurred that malefactors who have been guilty of the gravest 
crimes have thrown themselves into the profession of Christianity, and 
have been at once accepted and screened (from justice). In every prov- 
ince do the foreign missionaries interfere at the offices of the local author- 
ities in lawsuits in which native Christians are concerned. For example 
in a case that occurred in Sze-chuen in which some native Christian 
women defrauded certain persons (non-Christians) of the rent owing to 
them, and actually had these persons wounded and killed, the French 
Bishop took on himself to write in official form (to the authorities) plead- 
ing in their favour. None of these women were sentenced to forfeit life 
for life taken, and the resentment of the people of Sze-chuen in conse- 
quence remains unabated." 

Mr, Wade, the British Minister at Peking, in reporting this 
memorandum and its appended propositions to Earl Granville, 
June 8, 1871, said : 

"The promiscuous enlistment of evil men as well as good by the 
Romish missionaries, and their advocacy of the claims advanced by these 
ill-conditioned converts, has made Romanism most unpopular ; and the 
people at large do not distinguish between Romanist and Protestant, nor 
between foreigner and foreigner; not that Government has made no effort 
to instruct the people, but China is a large Empire. . . , Three- 
fourths of the Romish missionaries in China, in all, between 400 and 500 
persons, are French ; and Romanism in the mouths of non-Christian 



256 



New Forces in Old China 



Chinese is as popularly termed the religion of the French as the religion 
of the Lord of Heaven." 

June 27th of that year, Earl Granville wrote to Lord Lyons 
that he had said to the French Charge d' Affaires: — 

" I told M, Gavard that I could not pretend to think that the conduct 
of the French missionaries, stimulated by the highest and most laudable 
object, had been prudent in the interest of Christianity itself, and that the 
support which had been given by the representatives of France to their 
pretensions was dangerous to the future relations of Europe with China." 

The Hon. Frederick F. Low, United States Minister at 
Peking, in communicating that memorandum and the attached 
propositions to the State Department in Washington, March 
20, 1871, said : — 

" A careful reading of the Memorandum clearly proves that the great, 
if not only, cause of complaint against the missionai'ies comes from the 
action of the Roman Catholic priests and the native Christians of that 
faith. . . . Had they (the Chinese Goverment) stated their com- 
plaints in brief, without circumlocution, and stripped of all useless ver- 
biage, they would have charged that the Roman Catholic missionaries, 
when residing away from the open ports, claim to occupy a semi-ofiEicial 
position, which places them on an equality with the provincial officer ; 
that they deny the authority of the Chinese officials over native Christians, 
which practically removes this class from the jurisdiction of their own 
rulers ; that their action in this regard shields the native Christians from 
the penalties of the law, and thus holds out inducements for the lawless 
to join the Catholic Church, which is largely taken advantage of; that 
orphan asylums are filled with children, by the use of improper means, 
against the will of the people ; and when par^ents, guardians, and friends 
visit these institutions for the purpose of reclaiming children, their requests 
for examination and restitution are denied ; and lastly, that the Frencn 
Government, while it does not claim for its missionaries any rights of this 
nature by virtue of treaty, its agents and representatives wink at these 
unlawful acts, and secretly uphold the missionaries. ... I do not 
believe, and, therefore I cannot affirm, that all the complaints made 
against Catholic missionaries are founded in truth, reason, or justice ; at 
the same time, I believe that there is foundation for some of their charges. 



Responsibility of Missionaries 257 

My opinions, as expressed in former despatches touching this matter, are 
confirmed by further investigation. . , ." 

On the same date, Minister Low wrote to the Tsung-li 
Yamen : — 

" It is a noticeable fact, that among all the cases cited there does not 
appear to be one in which Protestant missionaries are charged with violat- 
ing treaty, law or custom. So far as I can ascertain, your complaints 
are chiefly against the action and attitude of the missionaries of the 
Roman Catholic faith ; and, as these are under the exclusive protection 
and control of the Government of France, I might with great propriety 
decline to discuss a matter with which the Government of the United 
States has no direct interest or concern, for the reason that none of its citi- 
zens are charged with violating treaty or local law, and thus causing 
trouble." 

This tendency of the Chinese to confuse Roman Catholics 
and Protestants is further illustrated by the note addressed by 
Minister Wen Hsiangto Sir R, Alcock : — 

" Extreme indeed would be the danger if, popular indignation having 
been once aroused by this opposition to the authorities, the hatred of the 
whole population of China were excited like that of the people of Tien- 
tsin against foreigners, and orders, though issued by the Government, 
could not be for all that put in force. . . . Although the creeds of the 
various foreign countries differ in their origin and development from each 
other, the natives of China are unable to see the distinction between 
them. In their eyes all (teachers of religion) are ' missionaries from the 
"West,' and directly they hear a lying story (about any of these mission- 
aries), without making further and minute inquiry (into its truth), they 
rise in a body to molest him." 

As for the Protestant missionaries, it would be useless to as- 
sert that every one of them has always been blameless in this 
matter. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that there is a 
sense in which the gospel is a revolutionary force. Christ 
Himself said that He came not to send peace on earth but a 
sword, and to set a man at variance against his father. There 



258 New Forces in Old China 

is usually more or less of a protest in a heathen land when a 
man turns from the old faith to the new one. The refusal to 
contribute to the temple sacrifices and to worship the ancestral 
tablets is sure to be followed by a furious outcry. The con- 
vert is apt to be assailed as a traitor to the national custom and 
as having entered into league with the foreigner. 

To the Chinese, moreover, all white men are " Christians " 
and " foreign devils," and all alike stand for the effort to for- 
eignize and despoil China. Except where personal acquaint- 
ance has taught certain communities that there is a difference 
between white men, the evil acts of one foreigner or of one ag- 
gressive foreign Government are charged against all the mem- 
bers of the race, just as in the pioneer days in the American 
colonies, a settler whose wife had been killed by an Indian took 
his revenge by indiscriminately shooting all the other Indians 
he could find. Any hatred that the Chinese may have against 
Christianity is due, not so much to its religious teachings, as to 
its identification with the foreign nations whose religion Chris- 
tianity is supposed to be and whose aggressions the Chinese 
have so much reason to fear and to hate. 

For this reason, the introduction of Buddhism and Moham- 
medanism is not parallel, and to base an argument against 
Christianity on the alleged fact that the other faiths easily suc- 
ceeded in domesticating themselves in China is to confuse facts. 
Neither Buddhism nor Mohammedanism entered China as an 
aggressive propaganda by foreigners. The Chinese themselves 
brought in Buddhism, and it spread chiefly because it grafted 
into itself many Chinese superstitions and did not oppose 
Chinese vices, but rather assimilated them. Why should the 
people have opposed a religion which interfered with nothing 
that they valued and reenforced their darhng prejudices ? As 
for Islam, we have already seen ' that it is the faith of early im- 
migrants and their descendants, that its followers do not propa- 
gate it, that they live in separate communities, are disliked by 
1 Chapter VI. 



Responsibility of Missionaries 259 

the Chinese and are often at open war with them, Chris- 
tianity, on the contrary, comes to China with foreigners who 
have no intention of setthng down as permanent members of 
Chinese society, who are classed as representatives of nations 
which are regarded as more or less hostile and unjust, and who 
preach their religion as a vital spiritual faith which opposes all 
wrong, uproots all superstition and aims at the moral reconstruc- 
tion of every man. Of course, therefore, Christianity must ex- 
pect a reception different in some respects from that which was 
given to Buddhism and Mohammedanism. 

It is the shallowest of all objections to missions that 
Mr. Francis Nichols urged in the North American Review 
when he insisted that "the missionary is not engaged to be a 
reformer," but that " his mission is to preach the gospel — noth- 
ing more." 

" Is the gospel then simply a patent arrangement by which idolaters 
can get to heaven, without disturbing their idolatry or the vices associated 
with it ? Was not Christ a reformer ? and Paul also, and his successors, 
who, by their preaching, gave the idols of Rome to the moles and the 
bats, and robbed the Coliseum of its gladiatorial shows ? It is the glory 
of Christianity that on questions of truth and righteousness it makes no 
compromise. Its mission is to save the world by reforming it. . . . 
Who that understands the genius of Christianity can fail to see that China 
Christianized must be very different from China as it now is? " i 

After making all due allowance for these things, how- 
ever, the fact still remains that opposition of this sort in 
China is usually local and sporadic. It affects a greater 
or less number of individuals and families and occasionally 
a community, but it does not move a whole population to 
the frenzy of a national uprising. The anti-foreign hatred 
of the Boxers was fierce in thousands of cities and villages 
where there were no missionaries or Chinese Christians at 
all. In the sphere of religion proper, the Chinese are not an 
intolerant people. They are almost wholly devoid of sec- 
1 The Rev. Dr. Calvin Mateer, Teng-chou. 



26o New Forces in Old China 

tarian spirit. The coming of another religion would not of 
itself excite serious opposition, for having become accustomed 
to the presence and intermingling of several religions, it would 
not antecedently occur to the Chinese that a fourth faith would 
involve the abandonment of the others. They would be more 
apt to infer that the new could be accepted in harmony with 
the old in the established way. So the worst foe that the 
Christian missionary has to encounter is not hostility but in- 
difference. 

As a rule, the Chinese have not strenuously objected to the 
Protestant missionaries as missionaries. It is the policy of the 
mission boards to avoid all unnecessary interference with native 
customs. So far from coveting official equality with Chinese 
magistrates, an overwhelming majority of the Protestant mis- 
sionaries throughout the Empire expressly declined to avail 
themselves of the offer of the Chinese Government to give them 
the same privileges and official status that was accorded to the 
Roman Catholic priests and bishops in the Imperial decree of 
March 15, 1899. 

"The very thing which missionaries seek to avoid is dena- 
tionalizing their converts. So far as mission schools at the 
ports are concerned, it is not the missionary who is chiefly re- 
sponsible for what foreignizing is done. The Chinese who 
patronize these schools want their children to learn foreign ac- 
comphshments. Such schools, however, form but a very small 
part of the extensive educational work done by American 
missionaries in China." ' 

Many of the missionaries, especially in the interior stations, 
don Chinese clothing, shave their heads and wear a queue. 
Everywhere the missionaries learn the Chinese language, try to 
get into sympathy with the people, teach the young, heal the sick, 
comfort the dying, distribute relief in time of famine, preach the 
gospel of peace and good-will, and, in the opinion of unprej- 
udiced judges, are upright, sensible and useful workers. Not 
1 The Rev. Dr. Calvin H. Mateer, 



Responsibility of Missionaries 261 

only men but women travel far into the interior, the former fre- 
quently alone and unarmed. They go into the homes of the 
people, preach in village streets, sleep unprotected in Chinese 
houses, and receive much personal kindness from all classes. 

The experience of the Presbyterian mission at Chining-chou 
is an illustration of what has occurred in scores of communities. 
When Dr. Stephen A. Hunter and the Rev. William Lane tried 
to open a station in 1890, they were mobbed and driven out, 
barely escaping with their lives. But in June, 1892, the Rev. 
J. A. Laughlin arrived and was permitted to buy property and, 
in September, to bring his family and begin permanent resi- 
dence. There are hereditary bands of robbers in the neigh- 
bourhood, and more than once they attacked the mission com- 
pound. But gradually the peaceful purpose and the beneficent 
life of the missionaries became known and active opposition 
ceased. When the Boxer outbreak occurred, there were about 
150 baptized adults, besides a considerable number of children 
and adherents. During the troubles, only two of the Christians 
recanted, the rest holding together and continuing regular serv- 
ices. The mission property was undisturbed during the 
whole period. It is true, the officials were friendly ; but even 
Governor Yuan Shih Kai's influence could not prevent some 
loss in his own capital. In Chining-chou not a thing was 
touched, a striking testimony to the friendliness of the people 
towards the missionaries whom they had learned to love. As 
I approached the city with the returning missionaries, a group 
of thirty met us with beaming faces. For nearly a year, they 
had been without a missionary and their joy at seeing Mr. 
Laughlin was unmistakable. As we passed through the city to 
the mission-compound in the southeast suburb, people in al- 
most every door and window smiled and bowed a welcome. 
Nor was this cordiality confined to the Christians ; many of all 
classes being outspoken in their manifestations of respect and 
affection. 

Nor is it true that the Chinese sense of propriety is so out- 



262 New Forces in Old China 

raged, as some critics would have us believe, by the coming of 
single-women missionaries. It is true that in a land where all 
women are supposed to marry at an early age and where their 
freedom of movement is rigidly circumscribed, the position of 
the unmarried woman, however discreet she may be, is some- 
times embarrassingly misunderstood until the community be- 
comes better acquainted with her mission and character. But 
the opposition of the Chinese on this account has been grossly 
exaggerated by those whose prior hostility to all missionary 
work predisposed them to make as much capital as possible out 
of the small gossip on this subject. Even if the misunderstand- 
ing were as general and as bitter as some allege, it would not 
follow that single women should be withdrawn, for such mis- 
understanding grows out of a false and vicious conception of 
the female sex and its relation to man and society, and it is 
just that conception which Christianity should and does cor- 
rect. For that matter, the position of the single man is also 
misunderstood, while no other person in all China is more 
fiercely hated by the Chinese than the white traders in the 
treaty ports who are the chief source of the criticisms upon 
missionaries. The experience of every mission board operating 
in China has shown that a Chinese town soon learns that the 
single-woman missionary is a pure-minded, large-hearted and 
unselfish worker, who from the loftiest of motives devotes her- 
self to the teaching of women and children and to self-sacrific- 
ing ministries to the sick and suffering. No other foreigners 
are more beloved by the people than the single-women mission- 
aries. 

It is simply foolish to say that the missionary is responsible 
for the prompt appearance of the consul and the gunboat. 
The true missionary goes forth without either consul or gun- 
boat. He devotes his life to ameliorating the sad conditions 
which prevail in heathen communities. His reliance is not 
upon man, but upon God. But as soon as his work begins to 
tell, the trader appears to buy and sell in the new market. 



Responsibility of Missionaries 263 

The statesman casts covetous eyes on the newly opened terri- 
tory. Christianity civilizes, and civilization increases wants, 
stimulates trade and breaks down barriers. The conditions of 
modern civilization are developed. Then the consul is sent, 
not because the missionary asks for him, but because his gov- 
ernment chooses to send him. Sooner or later some local 
trouble occurs, and the Government takes advantage of the op- 
portunity to further its territorial or commercial ambitions. 
"Missionaries responsible, indeed ! " writes Dr. H. H. Jessup. 
"The diplomats of Europe know better. Had there been no 
grabbing of seaports and hinterlands, no forcing modern im- 
provements and European goods down the throats of the Chi- 
nese, the missionaries would have been let alone now as in the 
past." 

It is the foreign idea that the Chinese dislikes, the interfer- 
ence with his cherished customs and traditions. A railroad 
alarms and angers him more than half a hundred missionaries. 
A plowshare cuts through more of his superstitions than a mis- 
sion school. He does not want the methods of our western 
civilization, and he resents the attempt to push them upon him. 
If no other force had been at work than the foreign missionary, 
the anti-foreign agitation would never have started. It is sig- 
nificant that those who protest that we ought not to force our re- 
ligion upon the Chinese do not appear to think that there is 
anything objectionable in forcing our trade upon them. The 
animosity of the Chinese has been primarily excited, not by the 
missionary, but by the trader and the politician, and the mis- 
sionary suffers chiefly because he comes from the country of 
the trader and the politician and is identified with them as a 
member of the hated race of foreigners. 

On this whole subject, I have been at some pains to collect 
the testimony of men whose positions are a guarantee not only 
of knowledge but of impartiality. 

The Hon. George F. Seward, formerly United States 
Minister to China, declares : — 



264 



New Forces in Old China 



"The people at large make too much of missionary work as an occasion 
for trouble. There are missionaries who are iconoclasts, but this is not 
tlieir spirit. In great measure, they are men of education and judgment. 
They depend upon spiritual weapons and good works. For every enemy 
a missionary makes, he makes fifty friends. The one enemy may arouse 
an ignorant rabble to attack him. While I was in China, I always con- 
gratulated myself on the fact that the missionaries were there. There 
were good men and able men among the merchants and officials, but it 
was the missionary who exhibited the foreigner in benevolent work as 
having other aims than those which may justly be called selfish. The 
good done by missionaries in the way of education, of medical relief and 
of other charities cannot be overstated. If in China there were none 
other than missionary influences, the upbuilding of that great people 
would go forward securely. ... I am not a church member, but I 
have the profoundest admiration for the missionary as I have known him 
in China. He is a power for good and for peace, not for evil." 

President James B. Angell, also formerly United States 
Minister to China, replies as follows to the question, " Are 
the Chinese averse to the introduction of the Chinese 
religion " : — 

" No, not in that broad sense. They do not seem to fear for the per- 
manency of their own religion. It is not that they object to missionaries 
and the Christian religion as much as it is that the missionaries are 
foreigners. A more serious cause of the uprising is the wide-spread 
suspicion among the natives, since the Japanese war, that the foreigners 
are going to partition China. It is not strange that all these conditions 
cause friction and excitement. The Chinese want to be left to themselves, 
and the one word ' foreigners ' sums up the great cause of the present 
trouble." 

The Hon. Charles Denby, after thirteen years' experience as 
United States Minister to China, wrote : — 

" I unqualifiedly, and in the strongest language that tongue can 
utter, give to these men and women who are living and dying in China 
and the Far East my full and unadulterated commendation. . . . No 
one can controvert the fact that the Chinese are enormously benefited by 
the labours of the missionaries. Foreign hospitals are a great boon to the 



Responsibility of Missionaries 265 

sick. In the matter of education, tlie movement is immense. There are 
schools and colleges all over China taught by the missionaries. There are 
also many foreign asylums in various cities which take care of thousands 
of waifs. The missionaries translate into Chinese many scientific and 
philosophical works. There are various anti-opium hospitals where the 
victims of this vice are cured. There are industrial schools and workshops. 
There are many native Christian churches. The converts seem to be as 
devout as people of any other race. As far as my knowledge extends, I 
can and do say that the missionaries in China are self-sacrificing ; that 
their lives are pure ; that they are devoted to their work ; that their in- 
fluence is beneficial to the natives; that the arts and sciences and 
civilization are greatly spread by their efforts ; that many useful western 
books are translated by them into Chinese ; that they are the leaders in all 
charitable work, giving largely themselves and personally disbursing the 
funds with which they are intrusted ; that they do make converts, and 
such converts are mentally benefited by conversion." And after the 
Boxer outbreak he added ; — " I do not believe that the uprising in China 
was due to hatred of the missionaries or of the Christian religion. The 
Chinese are a philosophic people, and rarely act without reasoning upon 
the causes and results of their actions. They have seen their land dis- 
appearing and becoming the property of foreigners, and it was this that 
awakened hatred of foreigners and not the actions of the missionaries or 
the doctrines that they teach." 

The present United States Minister, the Hon. Edwin H. 
Conger, has repeatedly borne similar testimony, publicly 
assuring the missionaries of his " personal respect and pro- 
found gratitude for their noble conduct." 

The Hon. John W. Foster, ex-Secretary of State and 
counsel for the Chinese Government in the settlement with 
Japan, writes : — 

" The opinion formed by me after careful inquiry and observation is 
that the mass of the population of China, particularly the common people, 
are not specially hostile to the missionaries and their work. Occasional 
riots have occurred, but they are almost invariably traced to the literati or 
prospective oflice-holders and the ruling classes. These are often bigoted 
and conceited to the highest degree, and regard the teachings of the 
missionaries as tending to overthrow the existing order of Government and 
society, which they look upon as a perfect system, and sanctified by great 



266 New Forces in Old China 

antiquity. . . . The Chinese, as a class, are not fanatics in religion, 
and if other causes had not operated to awaken a national hostility to 
foreigners, the missionaries would have been left free to combat 
Buddhism and Taoism, and carry on their work of establishing schools 
and hospitals." 

Wu Ting-fang, Chinese Minister to Washington during the 
Boxer uprising, while frankly stating that " missionaries are 
placed in a very delicate situation," and that "we must not 
be blind to the fact that some, in their excessive zeal, have 
been indiscreet," nevertheless as frankly added : — 

" It has been commonly supposed that missionaries are the sole cause 
of anti-foreign feeling in China. This charge is unfair. Missionaries 
have done a great deal of good in China. They have translated useful 
works into the Chinese language, published scientific and educational 
journals and established schools in the country. Medical missionaries 
especially have been remarkably successful in their philanthropic work." 

The Hon. Benjamin Harrison, late President of the United 
States, replied to my inquiry in the terse remark : — " If what 
Lord Salisbury says were true, the reflection would not be upon 
the missionaries, but upon the premiers." 

General James H. Wilson, of the United States Army, the 
second in command of the American forces in Peking, adds 
his testimony: — 

" Our missionaries, after the earlier Jesuits, were almost the first in 
that wide field (China). They were generally men of great piety and 
learning, like Morrison, Brown, Martin and Williams, and did all in their 
power as genuine men of God to show the heathen that the stranger was 
not necessarily a public enemy, but might be an evangel of a higher and 
better civilization. These men and their co-labourers have established 
hospitals, schools and colleges in various cities and provinces of the 
Empire, which are everywhere recognized by intelligent Chinamen as 
centres of unmitigated blessing to the people. Millions of dollars have 
been spent in this beneficent work, and the result is slowly but surely 
spreading the conviction that foreign arts and sciences are superior to 
• fung shuy ' and native superstition." 



Responsibility of Missionaries 267 

The Hon. John Goodnow, American Consul-General at 
Shanghai, emphatically declares : — " It is absurd to charge 
the missionaries with causing the Boxer War. They are 
simply hated by the Chinese as one part of a great foreign ele- 
ment that threatened to upset the national institutions." 

Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai when Governor of Shantung, in the 
spring of 1901, wrote to the Baptist and Presbyterian 
missionaries of the province as follows : 

" You, reverend sirs, have been preaching in China for many years, 
and, without exception, exhort men concerning righteousness. Your 
church customs are strict and correct, and all your converts may well 
observe them. In establishing your customs you have been careful to see 
that Chinese law was observed. How, then, can it be said that there is 
disloyalty? To meet this sort of calumny, I have instructed that 
proclamations be put out. I purpose, hereafter, to have lasting peace. 
Church interests may then prosper and your idea of preaching 
righteousness I can promote. The present upheaval is of a most 
extraordinary character. It forced you, reverend sirs, by land and water to 
go long journeys, and subjected you to alarm and danger, causing me 
many qualms of conscience." 

A charge which has been so completely demolished by such 
competent and unprejudiced witnesses can only be renewed at 
the expense of either intelligence or candour. Dr. Arthur H. 
Smith truly says that " amid the varied action of so many 
agents it is vain to deny that Christianity has sometimes been so 
presented as to be misrepresented, but on the whole there had 
for some time been a marked and a growing friendliness on the 
part of both people and officials. . . . The convulsion which 
shook China to its foundations was due to general causes, slow 
in their operations, but inevitable in their results. It was the 
impact of the Middle Ages with the developed Christian com- 
mercial civilization of the nineteenth century, albeit accompan- 
ied with many incidental elements which were neither Christian 
nor in the true sense civilized. If Christianity had never come 
to China at all, some such collision must have occurred." ' 
> " Rex Christus," pp. 204-206. 



XXII 

THE CHINESE CHRISTIANS 

THE real effect of the operation of the missionary 
force is to be seen in the Chinese who have accepted 
Christianity. As the commercial force is causing an 
economic revolution and as the political force resulted in the 
Boxer uprising, so the missionary force is developing a great 
spiritual movement which is crystallizing into a Chinese Church. 
Much has been said about the character of the Chinese Chris- 
tians and doubts have been cast on the genuineness of their faith. 
It is admitted that they sometimes try the patience of the mis- 
sionary. But is the home pastor never distressed by the conduct 
of his members ? I am inclined to believe that the Christians in 
China would compare favourably with the same number selected 
at random in America. A Chinese laundryman posted on his 
door this significant notice to his foreign customers : — " Please 
help us to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy by bring- 
ing your clothes to the laundry before ten o'clock on Satur- 
days," while in another place a Chinese servant left the morn- 
ing after a card party at which much money had changed 
hands, stating to his mistress in explanation, "Me Clistian ; 
me no stay in heathen house ! " The Chinese Christian does 
not content himself with church attendance once a week when 
the weather is pleasant or an attractive theme is announced. 
He does not find himself in vigorous health for an evening en- 
tertainment, and with a bad headache on prayer-meeting night. 
There are of course exceptions, but as a rule, the Chinese 
Christians worship God with regularity in all kinds of weather. 
A missionary told me that the attendance at his mid-week 
meeting was as large as at his Sunday morning service, that 

268 




a- 



The Chinese Christians 269 

every member of his church asked a blessing at the table, had 
family prayers and tried to bring his unconverted friends to 
Christ. If there is a pastor in America who can say that of his 
people, he has modestly refrained from making it public. 

But such comparisons are, after all, unfair to the Chinese 
Christian for he should be compared, not with Europeans and 
Americans who have had far greater advantages, but with the 
people of his own country. "At home, you have the ripe 
fruits of a Christianity which was planted more than a thou- 
sand years ago. The Word of God has been among you all 
these Christian centuries. You have in every part of the 
country a highly trained ministry, a gifted and devoted elder- 
ship, and a whole army of Christian workers of all ranks. You 
work in the atmosphere of a Christian society, and under a 
settled Christian government. You have an immense and 
varied Christian literature, and notwithstanding all defects and 
drawbacks, you have on your side a weight of Christian tradi- 
tion and a wealth of Christian example. Under such circum- 
stances and in such an atmosphere, what are we not entitled to 
expect of those who bear the Christian name ? What justice is 
there, or what reasonableness, in demanding as a test of genu- 
ineness the same degree of attainment on the part of Christian 
people, many of them uneducated, who are only just emerging 
from the deadness and insensibility of heathenism ? " ^ 

The real question is this : — Is the Christian Chinese a better 
man than the non-Christian Chinese — more moral, more truth- 
ful, more just, more reliable ? The answer is so patent that no 
one who knows the facts can doubt it for a moment. The best 
men and women in China to-day are the Protestant Christians. 
This is not saying that all converts are good or that all non- 
Christian Chinese are bad. But it is saying that comparing 
the average Christian with the average heathen, the superiority 
of the former in those things which make character and conduct 
is immeasurable. "The conscience of those who have been 
> Gibson, pp. 239, 240. 



270 New Forces in Old China 

born into a new life is not suddenly transformed, yet the change 
does take place and upon a larger scale. When once it has 
been accomplished, a new force has been introduced into the 
Chinese Empire, a salt to preserve, a leaven to pervade, a seed 
to bring forth after its kind in perpetually augmenting abun- 
dance and fertility." * 

The character of the Chinese Christian will appear in still 
more striking relief if we consider the circumstances in which 
he hears the gospel and the difficulties which he has to over- 
come. On this subject the following remarkable passage from 
Dr. Gibson is worth quoting entire : — 

" Out there the great issue is tried with all external helps removed. 
The gospel goes to China with no subsidiary aids. It is spoken to the 
people by the stammering lips of aliens. Those who accept it do so with 
no prospect of temporal gain. They go counter to all their own precon- 
ceptions, and to all the prejudices of their people. Try as we may to be- 
come all things to all men, we can but little accommodate our teaching to 
their thought. . . . Often and often have I looked into the faces of a crowd 
of non-Christian Chinese and felt keenly how many barriers lay between 
their minds and mine. Reasoning that seems to me conclusive makes no 
appeal to them. Even the words we use to convey religious ideas do not 
bear to their minds one-hundredth part of the meaning we wish to put into 
them. I have often thought that if I were to expend all my energies to 
persuade one Chinaman to change the cut of his coat, or to try some new 
experiment in agriculture, I should certainly plead in vain. And yet I 
stand up to beg him to change the habits of a lifetime, to break away 
from the whole accumulated outcome of heredity, to make himself a target 
for the scorn of the world in which he lives, to break off from the consoli- 
dated social system which has shaped his being, and on the bare word of 
an unknown stranger to plunge into the hazardous experiment of a new 
and untried life, to be lived on a moral plane still almost inconceivable to 
him, whose sanctions and rewards are higher than his thoughts as heaven 
is higher than earth. While I despair of inducing him by my reasonings 
to make the smallest change in the least of his habits, I ask him, not with 
a light heart, but with a hopeful one, to submit his whole being to a change 
that is for him the making of his whole world anew. * Credo quia impossi- 

> Smith, " Rex Christus," p. 107. 



The Chinese Christians 271 

ble,' I believe it can be done because I know I cannot do it, and the smallest 
success is proof of the working of the divine power. The missionary must 
either confess himself helpless, or he must to the last fibre of his being be- 
lieve in the Holy Ghost. I choose to believe, nay I am shut up to believe, 
by what my eyes have seen. 

" I do not mean that one sees the results of preaching directly on the 
spot. In China at least one seldom does. But by the power of God the 
results come. We have seen unclean lives made pure, the broken-hearted 
made glad, the false and crooked made upright and true, the harsh and 
cruel made kindly and gentle. I have seen old women, seventy, eighty, 
eighty-five years of age, throwing away the superstitions of a lifetime, the 
accumulated merit of years of toilsome and expensive worship, and when 
almost on the brink of the grave, venturing all upon a new-preached faith 
and a new-found Saviour. We have seen the abandoned gambler become 
a faithful and zealous preacher of the gospel. We have seen the poor 
giving out of their poverty help to others, poorer still. We see many 
Chinese Christians who were once narrow and avaricious, giving out of 
their hard-earned month's wages, or more, yearly, to help the church's 
work. We see dull and uneducated people drinking in new ideas, mys- 
teriously growing in their knowledge of Christian truth, and learning to 
shape their lives by its teachings. We have seen proud, passionate men, 
whose word was formerly law in their village, submit to injury, loss and 
insult, because of their Christian profession, until even their enemies were 
put to shame by their gentleness, and were made to be at peace with them. 
And the men and women and children who are passing through these ex- 
periences are gathering in others, and building up one by one a Christian 
community which is becoming a power on the side of all that is good in 
the non-Christian communities around them. . . . Everything is hos- 
tile to it. It is striking its roots in an uncongenial soil, and breathes a 
polluted air. It may justly claim for itself the beautiful emblem so hap- 
pily seized, though so poorly justified, by Buddhism — the emblem of the 
lotus. It roots itself in rotten mud, thrusts up the spears of its leaves and 
blossoms through the foul and stagnant water, and lifts its spotless petals 
over all, holding them up pure, stainless and fragrant, in the face of a 
burning and pitiless sun. So it is with the Christian life in Chma. Its 
existence there is a continuous miracle of life, of life more abundant." ' 

' " Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South China," pp. 29-31, 
240. 



272 New Forces in Old China 

Is it said that these Asiatics have become Christians for 
gain? Then how shall we account for the fact that out of 
their deep poverty they gave for church work last year ^2.50 
per capita, which is more in proportion to ability than Chris- 
tians at home gave ? The impoverished Tu-kon farmers rented 
a piece of land and worked it in common for the support of 
the Lord's work ; the Peking school-girls went without their 
breakfasts to save money for their church, and eight graduates 
of Shantung College refused high salaries as teachers, and ac- 
cepted low salaries as pastors of self-supporting churches. 
"Rice Christians?" Doubtless in some instances, just as at 
home some people join American churches for business or 
social ends. But those Chinese Christians are receiving less 
and less from abroad and yet their number grows. 

And it costs something to be a Christian in China. All 
hope of official preferment must be abandoned, for the duties 
of every magistrate include temple ceremonies that no Chris- 
tian could conduct. For the average Christian, loss of busi- 
ness, social ostracism, bitter hatred, are the common price. 
Near Peking, a young man was thrice beaten and denied the 
use of the village well, mill and field insurance, because he be- 
came a Christian. A widow was dragged through the streets 
with a rope about her neck and beaten with iron rods which 
cut her body to the bone, while her fiendish persecutors yelled : — 
"You will follow the foreign devils, will you!" And that 
Chinese saint replied that she was not following foreigners but 
Jesus Christ and that she would not deny Him ! 

And so on every hand there are evidences of fidelity in serv- 
ice, of tribulation joyfully borne, of systematic giving out of 
scanty resources. While sapient critics are telling us that the 
heathen cannot be converted, the heathen are not only being 
converted but are manifesting a consecration and self-denial 
which should shame many in Christian lands. At a Presby- 
terial meeting in north China, the native ministers held a two- 
hours' prayer-meeting before daylight. Such prayer-meetings 



The Chinese Christians 273 

are not common in America. Is it surprising that in that 
Httle North China Presbytery 292 baptisms were recorded that 
year? 

Nor is this a soHtary instance. Every Sunday the httle 
congregations gather. Every day the native helpers tell the 
Bible-story to their listening countrymen. 

The history of missions in China has shown that it requires 
more time to convert a Chinese to Christianity than some other 
heathen, but that he can be converted and that when he is 
converted, he holds to his new faith with a tenacity and forti- 
tude which the most awful persecution seldom shakes. The 
behaviour of the Chinese Christians under the baptism of blood 
and fire to which they were subjected in the Boxer uprising 
eloquently testified to the genuineness of their faith. That 
some should have fallen away was to be expected. Not every 
Christian, even in the United States, can "endure hardness." 
Let a hundred men anywhere be told that if they do not aban- 
don their faith, their homes will be burned, their business 
ruined, their wives ravished, their children brained, and they 
themselves scourged and beheaded, and a proportion of them 
will flinch. 

It was to be expected, too, that when, after the uprising, the 
Christians found their supporters triumphing over a prostrate 
foe, some of them should unduly exult and take advantage of 
the opportunity to punish their enemies or to collect money 
from them as the price of protection. The spirit of retaliation 
is strong in human nature in China as well as in America. 
When the armies of the Allies, led by educated and experi- 
enced officers, and controlled by diplomats from old-established 
Christian countries, gave way under the provocation of the 
time to unmeasured greed and vindictive cruelty, it is not sur- 
prising that some of the Chinese Christians, only just emerged 
from heathenism, should betray a revengeful spirit towards 
men who had destroyed their property, slaughtered their wives 
and children, and hunted the survivors with the ferocity of 



274 New Forces in Old China 

wild beasts. In some places, the missionaries had a hard task 

in restraining this spirit. It was inevitable, also, that in the 
confusion which followed the victory of the foreigners, some 
"wolves" should put on "sheep's clothing," and, under the 
pretense of being Christians, extort money from the terror- 
stricken villagers, or try to deceive the foreigner with false 
claims for indemnity. 

But as I visited the scenes of disaster, saw the frightful ruin, 
heard the stories of Christians and missionaries, faced the 
little companies of survivors and learned more of the awful 
ordeal through which they had passed, I marvelled, not that 
some yielded, but that so many stood steadfast. Edicts were 
issued commanding them to recant on pain of dire punishment, 
but promising protection to those who obeyed. The following 
proclamation posted on the wall of the yamen at Ching-chou-fu 
is a sample of hundreds : — 

"The Taku forts have been retaken by the Chinese. Gen. 
Tung Fu Shieng has led the Boxers and the goddesses, and 
has destroyed twenty foreign men-of-war, killing 6,000 foreign 
soldiers. The seven devilish countries' consuls came to beg for 
peace. General Tung now has killed all the foreign soldiers. 
The secondary devils (the native Christians) must die. Gen- 
eral Tung has ordered the Boxers to go to the foreign countries 
and bring out their devil emperors from their holes. One for- 
eigner must not be allowed to live. All who are not Chinese 
must be destroyed." 

It requires no large knowledge of Chinese character to calcu- 
late the effect of such official utterances on the minds of lawless 
men. 

Word sped from a Chinese city that on a certain day all 
Christians who had not recanted could be pillaged. From 
every quarter, the lawless streamed in, eager for the shambles. 
Ruffians pointed out the women they intended to take. And 
there was no foreigner to protect, no regiment or battleship 
for the Chinese Christian. 



The Chinese Christians 275 

Those poor people, hardly out of their spiritual infancy, 
stood in that awful emergency absolutely alone. Could an 
American congregation have endured such a strain without 
flinching ? Let those who can safely worship God according 
to the dictates of their own consciences be thankful that the 
genuineness of their faith has never been subjected to that 
supreme test. 

Those were grievous days for the Christians of China. 
Two graduates of Teng-chou College remained for weary 
weeks in a filthy dungeon when they might have purchased free- 
dom at any moment by renouncing Christianity. Pastor Meng 
of Paoting-fu, a direct descendant of Mencius, was 120 miles 
from home when the outbreak occurred. He was safe where 
he was, but he hurried back to die with his flock. He was 
stabbed, his arm twisted out of joint and his back scorched 
with burning candles in the effort to make him recant. But 
he steadfastly refused to compromise either himself or his 
people and was finally beheaded. 

The uneducated peasant was no whit behind his cultivated 
countrymen in devotion to duty. A poor cook was seized and 
beaten, his ears were cut off, his mouth and cheeks gashed 
with a sword and other unspeakable mutilations inflicted. Yet 
he stood as firmly as any martyr of the early Church. 

One of the Chinese preachers, on refusing to apostatize, re- 
ceived a hundred blows upon his bare back, and then the 
bleeding sufferer was told to choose between obedience and 
another hundred blows. What would we have answered ? Let 
us, who have never been called on to suffer for Him, be modest 
in saying what we would have done. But that mangled, half- 
dead Chinese gasped : — " I value Jesus Christ more than life, 
and I will never deny Him." Before all of the second hun- 
dred blows could be inflicted, unconsciousness came and he 
was left for dead. But a friend took him away by night, 
bathed his wounds and secretly nursed him to recovery. I saw 
him, when I was in China, and I looked reverently upon the 



276 New Forces in Old China 

back that was seamed and scarred with " the marks of the 
Lord Jesus." Of the hundreds of Christians who were taken 
inside the legation grounds in Peking, not one proved false to 
their benefactors. " In the midday heat, in the drenching 
night rains, under storms of shot and shell, they fought, filled 
sand-bags, built barricades, dug trenches, sang hymns and 
offered prayers to the God whom the foreigner had taught 
them to love." Even the children were faithful. During the 
scream of deadly bullets, and the roar of burning buildings, 
the voices of the Junior Christian Endeavour Society were 
heard singing : — 

"There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes," 

Such instances could be multiplied almost indefinitely from 
the experiences of Chinese Christians during the Boxer uprising. 
Indeed the fortitude of the persecuted Christians was so re- 
markable that in many cases the Boxers cut out the hearts of 
their victims to find the secret of such sublime faith, declaring : 
" They have eaten the foreigner's medicine." In those humble 
Chinese the world has again seen a vital faith, again seen 
that the age of heroism has not passed, again seen that men 
and women are willing to die for Christ. Multitudes with- 
stood a persecution as frightful as that of the early disciples in 
the gardens and arenas of Nero. If they were hypocrites why 
did they not recant? As Dr, Maltbie Babcock truly said : — 
" One-tenth of the hypocrisy with which they were charged 
would have saved them from martyrdom." But thousands 
of them died rather than abjure their faith, and thousands 
more " had trial of mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover 
of bonds and imprisonment; they were stoned, they were 
sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the 
sword ; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins ; being 
destitute, afflicted, ill-treated ; wandering in deserts and moun- 
tains and caves and the holes of the earth." 

Col. Charles Denby, late United States Minister to China, 



The Chinese Christians 277 

declared : — " Not two per cent, of the Chinese Christians proved 
recreant to their faith and many meet death as martyrs. Let 
us not call them ' Rice Christians ' any more. Their conduct 
at the British Legation and the Peitang is deserving of all 
praise." ^ Beyond question, the Chinese Christians as a body 
stood the test of fire and blood quite as well as an equal 
number of American Christians would have stood it. 

One of the most trying experiences of the missionaries 
has been the dealing with those who did recant. Some of the 
cases were pitiful. Poor, ignorant men, confessed their sin 
with streaming eyes, saying that they did not mean to deny 
their Lord, but that they could not see their wives outraged 
and their babies' heads crushed against stone walls. Others 
admitted that, though they stood firm while one hundred blows 
were rained upon their bare backs, yet after that they became 
confused and were only dimly conscious of what they said to 
escape further agony than flesh and blood could endure. 
Still others made a distinction, unfamiliar to us, but quite in 
harmony with Oriental hereditary notions, between the convic- 
tions of the heart and the profession of the lips, so that they 
externally and temporarily bowed their heads to the storm 
without feeling that they were thereby renouncing their faith. 
One of the best Chinese ministers in Shantung, after 200 
lashes, which pounded his back into a pulp, feebly muttered 
an affirmative to the question: "Will you leave the devils' 
church?" But he explained afterwards that while he prom- 
ised to leave "the devils' church," he did not promise to 
leave Christ's Church. The deception was not as apparent to 
him as it is to us whose moral perceptions have been sharp- 
ened by centuries of Christian nurture which have been denied 
to the Chinese. 

When the proclamation ordering the extermination of all 
foreigners and Christians was posted on the walls of Ching- 
chou-fu, a friendly official hinted that if the Chinese pastors 
Letter, April 28, 1902, 



278 New Forces in Old China 

would sign a document to the effect that they would " no 
longer practice the foreign religion," he would accept it as 
sufficient on behalf of all their flocks, and not enforce the 
order. Warrants for the arrest of every Christian had already 
been written. Scoundrels were hurrying in from distant vil- 
lages to join in the riot of plunder and lust. Two women 
had already been killed. What were the pastors to do? 
There was no missionary to guide them, for long before the 
consuls had ordered all foreigners out of the interior. The 
agonized pastors determined to sacrifice themselves for their 
innocent people, to go through the form of giving up the 
"foreign" religion. That word " foreign " must be empha- 
sized to understand their temptation, for the Chinese Chris- 
tians do not feel that Christianity is foreign, but that it is 
theirs as well as ours. Moreover, the pastors were made to 
understand that it was simply a legal fiction, not affecting 
the religion of their hearts, but only a temporary expedient 
that the friendly magistrate might have a pretext for giving 
his protection to the Christians. They were not asked to 
engage in any idolatrous rite or to make any public apostasy, 
but simply to sign a statement " no longer to practice the 
foreign religion." "So far from recanting," it was urged 
upon them, " you are preventing recanting." 

Their decision may be best given in the words of Pastor 
Wu Chien Cheng: "When I thought of these people," he 
said, his emotion being so great that the tears were running down 
his face, "in most cases with children and aged parents de- 
pendent upon them, and thought of all that was involved for 
them if I refused to sign the paper — well, I couldn't help it. 
I decided to take on myself the shame and the sin." 

As the Rev. J. P. Bruce, of the English Baptist Mission, 
who told me of this incident, truly says: "Who could listen 
to such a narrative — so sad and painful and yet not without 
much that was noble — without sympathy and tears? " In this 
spirit of tenderness, so marked in the Lord's dealings with 



The Chinese Christians 279 

sinful Peter, the missionaries dealt with the recanting Chris- 
tians, With the impostors, indeed, they had less mercy. The 
Rev. R. M. Mateer secured the arrest of two scapegraces who, 
under pretense of being Christians, had blackmailed innocent 
villagers. Very plainly, too, did the missionaries deal with 
Christians, who, like some people in the United States after a 
fire, placed an extravagant valuation upon what they had lost. 
But these were exceptional cases. 

On the whole. Christians in Europe and America may well 
have stronger sympathy and respect for their fellow-Christians 
in China who have suffered so much for conscience' sake. 
Purified and chastened by the fearful holocaust through which 
they have passed, they are stronger spiritually than ever before. 
Like the apostles after Pentecost, they are giving "with great 
power their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." 
"The Chinese Church is not yet strong enough to stand 
entirely alone, but it is far stronger and more self-conscious of 
the eternal indwelling Spirit than ever before. It has learned 
the power of God to keep the soul in times of deadly peril, 
and to enable the weakest to give the strongest testimony. It 
has learned by humiliation and confession to put away its sins, 
and to gird itself for new conflicts and new victories. . . . 
Its ablest leaders are more trustworthy men than before their 
trials, and the body of believers has a unity and a cohesive- 
ness which will certainly bear fruit in the not distant future." ^ 

1 Smith, « Rex Christus," p. 2I2. 



XXIII 

THE STRAIN OF READJUSTMENT TO CHANGED 
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 

THE economic revolution in Asia, discussed in a pre- 
ceding chapter/ bears heavily on the Chinese Chris- 
tians. So far as the pressure affects the rank and file 
of the membership, the mission boards cannot give adequate 
relief. Abroad as well as at home, it must remain the inexo- 
rable rule that a Christian must live within his income and buy- 
new things only as he can pay for them. Any other policy 
would mean utter ruin. Here also, men must "work out their 
own salvation"; and the missionary, while trying to hft men 
out of barbarous social conditions on the one hand, should on 
the other resolutely oppose the improvident eagerness which 
leads a blanketed Sioux Indian to buy on credit a rubber-tired 
surrey. 

But what about the native ministers and teachers, who find 
it impossible to live on the salaries of a decade ago? The 
problem of the ordinary helper is not so difficult. Springing 
from the common people, accustomed from childhood to a 
meagre scale of living, the small salaries which the people can 
pay either in full or in large part are usually equal to the 
income which they would have had if they had not become 
Christians. But some native ministers come from a higher 
social grade. They are men of education and refinement. 
They cannot live in a mud hut, go barefooted, wear a loin cloth 
and subsist on a few cents' worth of rice a day. They must not 
only have better houses and food and clothing, but they must 
have books and periodicals and the other apparatus of educated 
1 Chapter IX. 
280 



Economic Conditions 281 

men. These things are not only necessary to their own main- 
tenance, but they are essential to the work, for these men are 
the main reliance for influencing the upper classes in favour of 
Christianity. It is not a question of luxury or self-indulgence, 
but of bare respectability, of the simple decencies of life which 
are enjoyed by an American mechanic as distinguished from 
the poverty which, for a cultivated family, falls below the level 
of self-respect. But this requires a salary which, save in a 
very few places, cannot at present be paid by the churches. 
"Our pastors," writes a missionary, "are supposed to live as 
the middle-class of their people do, but of late years, with the 
great rise in prices, they are living below the middle- class." 

The consequences are not only pinching poverty but some- 
times a feeling of wrong, and, in some cases, a yielding to 
temptation. One Chinese pastor, for example, who was trying 
to support a wife and five children on ^10 Mex. (^5) a month, 
shipwrecked his influence by trying to supplement his scanty 
income by helping in lawsuits. Can we wonder that he felt 
obliged to do something, almost anything ? 

But who is to pay the higher salaries that are now so neces- 
sary? The first impulse is to look to the mission boards in 
Europe and America, and accordingly missionaries and Chris- 
tians are importunately calling for increased appropriations. 
But whatever temporary and occasional relief may be given in 
this way, as a permanent remedy, it is plainly impossible. If 
the conditions were simply sporadic and local, the case might 
be diff'erent. But they are universal, or fast becoming so, and 
they will be permanent. It is quite visionary to suppose that the 
income of the mission boards will permit them to meet the 
whole or even the larger part of the increased cost of living 
among the myriads of ministers, teachers and helpers in the 
growing churches of China. American Christians cannot be 
reasonably expected to add such an enormous burden to the 
already large responsibilities which they are carrying in their 
varied forms of home work and the present scale of foreign 



282 New Forces in Old China 

missionary expenditure. Even if they could and would, it 
would be at the expense of all further enlargement of the work, 
and at the same time it would still further weaken an already 
weak sense of self-reliance among the native ministers and 
helpers of Asia. 

Moreover, the average Christian giver in America is feeling 
the same strain himself. The so-called "era of prosperity" 
has given more steady employment to the mechanic, has given 
better markets to the producer, and has enormously increased 
the wealth of many who were already rich. But the men on 
fixed salaries find that "prosperity" has increased the prices 
of commodities without proportionately increasing earnings. 
Millions of American church members find it harder to give 
than they did ten years ago, for while their incomes are about 
the same, they must pay higher prices for meats, groceries and 
clothing. True, many salaries were cut down during the finan- 
cial stringency of 1896-1897, but while some of them have 
been restored to their former figure, few have been raised above 
their original level, while others are still below it. Meantime 
official statistics show that the average cost of food is 10.9 per 
cent, higher than the average for the decade between 1890 and 
1899, and that there has been an increase of 16. i per cent, as 
compared with 1896, the year of lowest prices.^ It is urged that 
the wages of workmen have increased in proportion. But how- 
ever true this may be of organized labour, it is palpably untrue of 
the great middle-class who are neither capitalists nor members 
of labour unions. They form the bulk of the church member- 
ship and to them " Mr. Wright's statement will carry no reassur- 
ance. It is they who have been hit hardest by the increased 
cost of living for their incomes have not kept pace with it. 
Indeed, they are actually worse off to-day than they were 
eight, ten or fifteen years ago." ^ Dun's Review, an acknowl- 
edged authority, declares that not in twenty years has it cost 

^ Report of the Hon. Carroll D. "Wright, Commissioner of Labour, 1903. 
* The Youtli's Companion, October 29, 1903. 



Economic Conditions 283 

so much to live as now, and that March i, 1904, the average 
prices of breadstuffs were thirty per cent, higher than they were 
seven years ago. 

In such circumstances, it is clearly out of the question for 
the Christians of the United States to meet these enlarged de- 
mands for the support of their own families and, in addition, 
meet them for the churches in China. 

If then, the problem of the increased cost of living in Asia 
cannot be solved by increased gifts from America, what other 
solutions are possible? As an experienced missionary says: — 
*' To ask for more from America seems like a step backward ; 
but to leave matters as they are is to see our churches seriously 
crippled." Four possible solutions may be mentioned. 

First : — Stop all expansion of the work and use any increase 
in receipts to raise salaries. This is undoubtedly worthy of 
thoughtful consideration. To what extent is it right to open 
new fields and enlarge old ones when the workers now em- 
ployed are inadequately paid? Plainly, the mission boards 
should carefully consider this aspect of the question. As a 
matter of fact, many of them have already considered it. The 
Presbyterian Board has repeatedly declined urgent requests to 
establish new stations on the ground that it could not do so in 
justice to its existing work. But as a practicable solution, this 
method is open to serious difficulties. A living work must grow, 
and the living forces which govern that growth are more or less 
beyond the control of the boards. The boards are amenable 
to their constituencies and those constituencies sometimes im- 
peratively demand the occupation of a new field, as, for ex- 
ample, they did in the case of the Philippine Islands, some 
boards which at first decided not to enter the Philippines being 
afterwards forced into them by a pressure of denominational 
opinion that they could not ignore. Moreover, the mission- 
aries themselves are equally insistent in their demands for en- 
largement. Some boards are literally deluged with such ap- 
peals. The missionaries who have most strenuously insisted on 



284 New Forces in Old China 

the policy of no further expansion till the existing work is bet- 
ter sustained have sometimes been the very ones who have 
strongly urged that an exception should be made in their par- 
ticular fields, without realizing that the argument from ' ' excep- 
tions" is so often pressed that it is really the rule and not the 
exception at all. And the churches and missionaries are 
usually right. God is calling His people to go forward. His 
voice is frequently very plain, and the boards, with all their 
care and conservatism, are then obliged to expand. 

Second : — Diminish the number of native pastors, helpers and 
teachers and increase their work. In some places, this might 
be done by grouping congregations and fields. But the places 
where this could be wisely effected are so few that the relief to 
the situation as a whole would not be appreciable, especially as 
the native Christians would not give so liberally under such an 
arrangement. Their sense of responsibility would be weak- 
ened if they had only a half or a quarter of a pastor's time in- 
stead of the whole of it. Besides, the native force is far too 
small now. Instead of being diminished it should be largely 
increased. The great work of the future must be done by na- 
tive ministers. If China is ever to be evangelized, it must 
be to a large degree by Chinese evangelists. To adopt deliber- 
ately the policy of restricting the number of such evangelists 
and teachers would be suicidal. As a solution, therefore, this 
method is quite impracticable, as it would be a relief at the ex- 
pense of efficiency. 

Third : — Require native leaders to earn their own living either 
wholly or in part. There is Pauline example for this method. 
Some of the Presbyterian missionaries in Laos have adopted it 
by inducing the members of a congregation to secure a rice- 
field and a humble house for their minister. The Korea mis- 
sionaries have very successfully worked this method by insist- 
ing that the leaders of groups shall continue in their former oc- 
cupations and give their services to Christian work without pay, 
in some such way as Sunday-school superintendents and other 



Economic Conditions 285 

unpaid workers do in America. Tliis method is deserving of 
wider adoption. It would give considerable relief in many 
other fields. It was probably the way that the early church 
grew. 

" Two opinions," says Dr. J. J. Lucas, " have been held in regard to 
the basis on which the salaries of native agents should be fixed. One is 
that such a salary should be paid as would remove all excuse for engaging 
in secular work, demanding all the time of the pastor for spiritual work ; 
another is, that acknowledging the salary to be insufficient, the pastors be 
expected to supplement it by what they can get from field and vineyard. 
If self-support is to be aimed at, at all cost, then the latter plan is the only 
feasible one, with the dangers of its abuse. There is no doubt, however, 
that a man who loves the gospel ministry and is devoted to it can, without 
the neglect of spiritual affairs, do enough outside to lessen materially the 
burden that would fall on the church in his support." 

But this method of itself would hardly solve the problem. 
However well adapted to the beginnings of mission work, it 
fails to provide a properly qualified native leadership. To do 
efficient work, a native pastor must give his whole time to it, 
and to that end he must have a salary that will make him " free 
from worldly cares and avocations." We insist on this in the 
United States and the reasons for such a policy are as strong 
on the foreign field. The minister in Asia as well as the min- 
ister in America must have a salary. The labourer is worthy of 
his hire. 

Fourth : — Insist upon a larger measure of self-support. The 
native churches must be led to a fuller responsibility in this 
matter. Grave as are the temporary embarrassments which the 
increased cost of living is forcing upon them and trying as is 
the permanent distress of some of them, yet as a whole the 
economic revolution will undoubtedly enlarge the earning 
capacity of the native Christians, Indeed, the new principles 
of life which the gospel brings should make them among the 
first to profit by the changed conditions, and as their wealth in- 
creases, their spirit of giving should, and under the wise lead- 



286 New Forces in Old China 

ership of the missionaries undoubtedly will, increase. For 
these reasons, the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions took 
the following action July 2, 1900 : — 

"As having reference to the question of self-support of the native 
churches on the mission field, and in view of the fact that some of its mis- 
sions are proposing to increase the salaries of native preachers and helpers 
on account of the increased cost of living, the Board is constrained to look 
with no little apprehension upon the prospect of continuing and increasing 
demands of foreign aid in proportion to the contributions made by the 
churches themselves. Increased intercourse of eastern nations with those 
of the west has led and will still further lead to a gradual assimilation to 
western ways and western prices, and unless the self-reliant spirit of the 
churches can be stimulated to a proportionate advance, there is a sure 
prospect that the drafts upon mission funds will be larger and larger in 
proportion to the amount of work accomplished. In view of these con- 
siderations, it was resolved that the missions in which such increase is 
proposed be earnestly requested to arouse the churches to the purpose and 
the endeavour to meet this increased expenditure instead of laying still 
larger burdens upon the resources of foreign funds. The Board deems 
this necessary not merely to the interest of its expanding work but to the 
self-reliant character, the future stability and self-propagating power of 
the churches themselves." 

There appears to be no alternative. And yet this policy, 
while adhered to, should be enforced with reasonable discretion 
and due regard to "this present distress." How can Chris- 
tians, who can barely live themselves and pay a half or two- 
thirds of their pastor's present support, suddenly meet this call 
for enlarged salaries ? For reasons already given, it is harder 
for them to make ends meet now than it was in the old days 
of primitive simplicity, while in many places a profession of 
Christianity is followed by the loss of property and employment 
so that the Christian is impoverished by the loss of the income 
that he already had. In these circumstances, both boards and 
missions must simply do the best they can, and neither allow 
the emergency to sweep them into a mistaken charity that 



Economic Conditions 2S7 

would be fatal to the ultimate interests of the cause nor allow a 
valuable native worker to suffer for the necessaries of life. 

" We need to bear in mind that the low salaries of China are not the 
product of Christianity, but of heathenism, and the ability to live on five 
or six Mexicans per month is not the result of a laudable economy un- 
known to Christian countries, so much as it is the result of a degradation 
of manhood to the level of beasts. The church is responsible for 
the knowledge of a better way of living. We have created the desire for 
a clean house, clean clothing, healthful food, and books, on the part of our 
educated young men. Shall we implant this desire for six or eight years 
and take the rest of the man's life in trying to squelch it ? We have come 
as apostles of truth to a mighty empire, to the great and the small, to the 
rich and the poor, and if we had a native ministry which could appeal to 
a different class of men than most of them are now appealing to, would 
not the day of self-support be hastened beyond what we dare to hope ? Is 
there not a feeling out for something better on the part of the well-to-do, 
the more intelligent, just as really as there is on the part of the lowest 
classes? Do not we have a mission to the man who can pay $100.00 
a year to the church just as really as to the one who pays 100 cash? 
There is nothing so costly as cheap men. Let us have a higher grade of 
men and we shall have a higher grade of church-membership. Is it not 
true that nothing more stands in the way of self-support than some of our 
native clergy ? We must not turn down better men because they must 
have a little more to live upon than poor men." • 

It is idle, however, to urge as a reason for increasing the sal- 
aries of Chinese ministers that a qualified Asiatic can earn more 
in commercial life than in the ministry. Such arguments often 
come to mission boards. But religious work cannot compete 
with business in financial inducements either at home or 
abroad. It is notorious that in America, ministers and church 
workers generally do not receive the compensation which they 
could command in secular employments or professions. The 
qualities that bring success in the ministry are, as a rule, far 
more liberally remunerated in secular life. The preacher who 

^ Mr. F. S. Brockman, Address — " How to Retain to the Church the 
Services of English-Speaking Christians," Shanghai, 1904. 



288 New Forces in Old China 

can command ^6,000 or ^8,000 in the pulpit could probably 
command three or four times that amount in the law or in 
business. Men who are as eminent in other professions and in 
the commercial world as the most eminent clergymen are in the 
ministry usually have incomes ranging from ^20,000 to ^100,- 
000 a year and have no " dead line" of age either. As for 
others, the Rev. Dr. B. L. Agnew, Secretary of the Presbyte- 
rian Board of Ministerial Relief, is authority for the statement 
that the average salary of Presbyterian ministers is ^700 and 
that for all denominations it does not equal the wages of the aver- 
age mechanic. A missionary writes : — ' ' Practically all our native 
pastors are underpaid." The same thing might be said of all 
the home missionaries and of most of the pastors of non-mis- 
sionary churches at home, one-third of whom receive only 
^500 or less. 

The churches of America cannot, or at any rate will not, do 
for the native ministers of Asia what they are not doing for 
their own ministers. The world over, the rewards of Christ's 
service are not financial. Those who seek that service must be 
content with modest support, sometimes even with poverty. 
This is not a reason for the home churches to be content with 
their present scale of missionary giving, nor does it mean that 
mission boards are disposed to refuse requests for appropria- 
tions. The boards are straining every nerve to secure a more 
generous support and they will gladly send all they can to the 
missions on the field. But it is a reason for impressing more 
strongly upon the young men in the churches of Asia that they 
should consecrate themselves to the Master's service from a 
higher motive than financial support and that while the boards 
will continue to give all the assistance that is in their power, 
yet that the permanent dependence of the ministers of China 
must be in increasing measure upon the Christians of China and 
not upon the Christians of America. Hundreds of native pas- 
tors are already realizing this and are manifesting a self-sacrific- 
ing courage and devotion that are beyond all praise. Said Mr. 



Economic Conditions 289 

Fitch of Ningpo to a Chinese youth of fine education and ex- 
ceptional ability : — " Suppose a business man should offer you 
;^ 1 00. 00 a month and at the same time you had the way opened 
to you to study for the ministry, and after entering it, to get 
from ^20.00 to ;^30.oo a month, which would you take?" 
And the youth answered — " I would enter the ministry." 
"He is now teaching a mission school at ^12.00 a month, 
though he could easily command ^30.00 a month in a business 
position." The hope of the churches of China is in such men. 
Mr. F. S. Brockman declares : — 

" There is a wide-spread conviction among missionai-ies that the allure- 
ments of wealth alone are keeping English-speaking young men from the 
ministry. The facts do not bear out this belief. ... In order to hold 
them in the ministry we need not appeal to their love of money. It is 
death to the ministry when we do it; we have opened the vial of their 
fiercest passion ; we are doing what Jesus Christ never did ; we are work- 
ing absolutely contrary to the fundamental laws of the kingdom of God. 
. . . We must teach prospective ministers to look upon their lives as 
an unselfish expenditure of God-given power. For once make the allure- 
ment of the ministry the allurement of comfort, ease, or wealth, and we 
have closed up every fountain of the minister's power." 



1 



XXIV 

COMITY AND COOPERATION 

"^HE Hon. Charles Denby, then United States Minis- 
ter at Peking, wrote in 1900: — 

" With all due deference to the great missionary societie, 
who have these matters in charge, my judgment is that missionary work 
in China has been overdone. Take Peking as an example. There are lo- 
cated at Peking the following Protestant missions : American Boards 
American Presbyterian, American Methodist, Christian and Missionary 
Alliance, International Y. M. C. A., London Missionary Society, Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel, International Institute, Mission for Chi- 
nese Blind, Scotch Bible Society, and the Society for the Diffusion of 
Christian Knowledge. To these must be added the Church of England 
Mission, the English Baptist Mission and the Swedish Mission. The 
above list shows that of American societies alone there are seven in Pe- 
king, not counting the Peking University, and that all western Powers 
taken collectively were represented by about twenty missions, A careful 
study of the situation would seem to suggest that no two American socie- 
ties should occupy the same district." ^ 

It may be well to examine this criticism, partly because it 
was made by an able man of known sympathy with mission 
work, and partly because it relates to the city where, if any- 
where, in China, overcrowding exists. In considering Peking, 
therefore, we are really considering the broad question of the 
practicability of withdrawing some missionary agencies in the 
interest of comity and efficiency. The Presbyterian missiona- 
ries themselves opened the way for the discussion of the 
question by proposing to the Congregational missionaries, after 
the Boxer uprising had been quelled, " an exchange of all work 

1 Missionary Review of the World, October, I900. 
290 



Comity and Cooperation 291 

and fields of our Presbyterian Church in the province of 
Chih-U in return for the work and fields of the American 
Board in the province of Shantung, subject to the approval of 
our respective Boards. ' ' The Mission added : — 

" It means no little sacrifice to sever attachments made in long years of 
service in fields and among a people whom God has enabled us to lead to 
Christ, but we feel that a high spirit of loyalty to Christ and His cause, in- 
spiring all concerned, will lead us to set aside personal preferences and 
attachments, if thereby the greater interests of His Church in China can be 
conserved." 

The whole question was thoroughly discussed during my 
visit in Peking. Much time was spent traversing the entire 
ground. Then a meeting was called of the leading missionaries 
of all the Protestant agencies represented in Peking. 

The result of all these conferences was the unanimous and 
emphatic judgment of the missionaries of all the boards con- 
cerned that there is not " a congestion of missionary societies 
in Peking," and that no one board could be spared without 
serious injury to the cause. In reply to the proposal of the 
Presbyterian missionaries, the North China Mission of the 
American Board wrote — 

" After considering the matter in all its bearings we are constrained to 
say that we contemplate with regret any plan which looks to the with- 
drawal of the Presbyterian Mission from the field which they have so long 
occupied in northern Chih-li. "We think that instead of illustrating comity 
this would appear as if comity was not to be attained without a violent 
dislocation from long-established foundations, and that in this particular 
there would be a definite loss all around. . . . We further deprecate the 
proposed step because there is now an excellent opportunity for the adoption 
of actual measures of cooperation between our respective missions. . . . 
We are ready to readjust boundaries in such a way as to remedy the waste 
of effort in the crossing of one another's territory. . . . We are confident 
that the ultimate outcome could not fail to be a greater benefit than the sud- 
den rupture of long-existing relations for the sake of mere geographical 
contiguity of the work of missions like yours and ours, each keeping its own 
district, careful not to encroach upon the other. In the higher unity here 



292 New Forces in Old China 

suggested we should expect to realize larger results in the promotion of 
comity not only, but also in the best interests of that kingdom of God for 
which we are each labouring. 

« Arthur A. Smith, 
" D. Z. Sheffield, 

" Committee." 

Moreover, several of the agencies enumerated by Colonel 
Denby, such as the Y, M. C. A., the International Institute, 
the Mission to the Blind, the various Bible Societies, and the 
Society for the Diffusion of Christian Knowledge, are not 
competing missionary agencies at all, but are doing a special 
work along such separate lines that it is unfair to take them 
into consideration. As a matter of fact, with the exception of 
a comparatively small work by the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel, the real missionary work in Peking is being done 
by only four Boards, — The American, Methodist, London, and 
Presbyterian. This is not a disproportionate number, consider- 
ing the fact that Peking is one of the great cities of the world 
and the capital of the Empire. It is of the utmost importance 
that a strong Christian influence should be exerted in such a 
centre. Indeed, if there is any place in all China where this in- 
fluence ought to be intensified, it is Peking. It is granted that 
Christian work is more difficult in a great city, that it is harder 
to convert a man there than in a country village. But, on the 
other hand, he is more influential when he is converted. 
Peking is the heart of China. Alone of all its cities, it is 
visited sooner or later by every ambitious scholar and promi- 
nent official. The examinations for the higher degrees bring 
to it myriads of the brightest young men of the country. The 
moral effect of a strong Christian Church in Peking will be felt 
in every province. If Christianity is to be a positive regenera- 
tive force in China it cannot afford to weaken its hold in the 
very citadel of China's power. 

It should be borne in mind that the work of the missionaries 
stationed at Peking is not confined to the city, but that Peking 



Comity and Cooperation 293 

is a base from which they work out on the east and south till 
they reacli the boundaries of the Tien-tsin and Paoting-fu 
station fields, while on the north and west a vast and populous 
region for an indefinite distance is wholly dependent upon them 
for Christian teaching. Extensive and densely inhabited areas 
of the province are not being worked by any board. The Rev. 
Dr. John Wherry, who has lived there for a generation, says 
that there are a hundred times as many people in the Peking 
region as are now being reached, and that there are 20,000,000 
in the province who have never yet heard of Christ. For this 
enormous field the missionary agencies now at work are really 
few. Hundreds of American cities of half a million inhabitants 
have a greater number of ordained workers than this entire 
province of Chih-li with a population nearly half as large as that 
of the United States. Indeed there is room for a great exten- 
sion of the work without overcrowding. 

Each denomination occupies a large and distinct geographical 
field in this province. For example, all that portion of the city 
and suburbs of Peking north of the line of the Forbidden City, 
with a population of about 200,000, is considered Presby- 
terian territory. No other missionaries are located in 
that part of Peking. In the country, the counties of San-ho, 
Huai-jou, Pao-ti, to the north and east of Peking, are also un- 
derstood to be distinctively Presbyterian ground. San-ho 
County alone is said to have 1,200 towns and villages, while 
the other counties are also very populous. No other Protestant 
denomination is working in any of these counties. At Pao- 
ting-fu, the Congregationalists and Presbyterians have made a 
division of the field, the former taking everything south of a 
line drawn through the centre of the city and the latter every- 
thing north of that line. Each denomination thus has wholly 
to itself half the city of Paoting-fu and about a dozen outl)dng 
counties. 

The missionaries of the three other boards concerned plainly 
stated that, in the event of the withdrawal of the Presbyterians, 



294 New Forces in Old China 

they would not be able to care for the work that would be left. 
They declared that they were not able adequately to sustain 
the work they already had and that there was not the shghtest 
reason to hope that their home boards would find it possible to 
give them the reinforcements in men and money which would 
be required if their present responsibilities were to be increased. 
The large district now occupied by any given board would sim- 
ply be vacated if its missionaries were transferred to other re- 
gions. The ties formed with the Chinese Christians and peo- 
ple in more than a generation of continuous missionary work 
would be broken and the influence acquired by faithful mis- 
sionaries in long years of toil would be lost. 

In these circumstances, would it be right for any one of 
these four boards to withdraw ? There will, indeed, come a 
time when it will be the duty of the missionary to leave the 
Chinese church to itself. But is this the time to go, when the 
native church, instead of being strong and able to care for 
itself, is torn and bleeding after frightful persecution ? These 
Christians look to the missionaries, who have hitherto led them, 
as spiritual fathers who will guide them in the future. They 
feel that the time has come for a new consecration to the task 
of evangelizing all their people. As directed by the mission- 
aries, they may become a great influence for the conversion 
of their countrymen. Should they be left when other mission- 
aries expressly state that they cannot care for them ? 

The question of closer cooperation, however, is worthy of 
careful consideration. At a conference of representatives of 
foreign mission boards of the United States and Canada hav- 
ing work in China, held in New York, September 21, 1900, 
the following resolution was unanimously adopted : 

" It is the judgment of this conference that the resumption of mission 
work in those parts of China where it has been interrupted would afford a 
favourable opportunity for putting into practice some of the principles of 
mission comity which have been approved by a general concensus of 
opinion among missionaries and boards, especially in regard to the over- 



Comity and Cooperation 295 

lapping of fields and such work as printing and publishing, higher educa- 
tion and hospital work, and the conference would commend the subject 
to the favourable consideration and action of the various boards and their 
iniosionaries." 

Christian America, which ought to set the example of 
comity, is distractingly divided. Should it not learn some- 
thing from its experience at home and, as far as possible, or- 
ganize its work abroad in such a way as to avoid perpetuating 
unnecessary divisions ? Should it not at least carefully con- 
sider whether a limited force cannot be used to better advan- 
tage for China and for Christ? I admire the ingenuity of those 
at home who can find good reasons for having half a dozen de- 
nominations in a town of a few thousand inhabitants. But on 
the foreign field, we should adopt a different policy. In the 
large cities — the Londons, and Berlins, and New Yorks, and 
Chicagos, of Asia, it is conceded that more than one Board 
may properly work. But with such exceptions, it should be 
the rule not to enter fields where other evangelical bodies are 
already established. Indeed it is already the rule. The 
Shanghai Conference of 1900 voted that missionary agencies 
should not be multiplied in small places, though that cities of 
prefectural rank should not be considered the exclusive terri- 
tory of any one board. The American Presbyterian Board de- 
clared in 1900, and its action was specifically approved by the 
General Assembly of that year : — " The time has come for a 
larger union and cooperation in mission work, and where 
church union cannot be attained, the Board and the missions 
will seek such divisions of territory as will leave as large dis- 
tricts as possible to the exclusive care and development of sep- 
arate agencies." 

In several places, boards and missions are moving actively in 
this direction. In 1902, the American and Presbyterian Boards 
entered into a union in educational work in the province of 
Chih-li by which the Presbyterians conduct a union boarding- 
school for girls in Paoting-fu and for boys in Peking, while the 



296 New Forces in Old China 

Congregationalists educate the boys of both denominations in 
Paoting-fu and the girls in Peking. A medical college in 
Peking was agreed upon in 1903, to be supported and taught 
jointly by the London, American and Presbyterian missions. 
In the province of Shantung, a notable union in both educa- 
tional and medical work was effected in 1903 between English 
Baptists and American Presbyterians. Instead of developing 
duplicate institutions with all the large expenditure of men and 
money that would be involved, the boards and missions con- 
cerned are uniting in the development of the Shantung Prot- 
estant University with the Arts College on the Presbyterian 
compound at Wei-hsien and the Theological and Normal 
School on the Baptist compound at Ching-chou-fu. The 
medical class will be taught alternately at the Baptist and Pres- 
byterian stations until funds warrant the erection of suitable 
buildings, probably at Chinan-fu, the capital of the province. In 
Shanghai, the Northern and Southern Methodists established a 
union publishing house in 1902, and in several other parts of 
China, plans for union of various kinds are being discussed. 

All these enterprises met with opposition at first. There was, 
indeed, little objection to union in medical education, for few 
questions of a denominational character are involved in the 
training of medical students. But it was urged by some that 
it would not be expedient to press consolidation in educational 
work, as the chief object of such work was held to be the 
training of a native ministry and each mission could best educate 
its own helpers and should do so in the interest of self-preser- 
vation. The example of the Meiji Gakuin in Tokio, Japan, 
which is supported by the Presbyterian and Reformed Boards, 
was not deemed determinative as in Japan but one native 
church is involved, so that the cases are not parallel. More- 
over, it was thought that in a large school there would not be as 
good an opportunity for that close personal contact between 
missionary and pupil which is so desirable. 

These difficulties, however, are believed by many of the mis- 



Comity and Cooperation 297 

sionaries to be more theoretical than practical, or, at any rate, 
not sufficiently formidable to prevent a more effective coopera- 
tion. No plan will be free from all objections and a good effort 
should not be abandoned because they are found to confront 
it. The defects in union are less grave than those that ex- 
perience has shown to be inherent in the old method of numer- 
ous weak and struggling institutions whose support requires a 
ruinous proportion of the mission force and the mission funds 
that might otherwise be available, in part at least, for the en- 
largement of the evangelistic work. " It certainly seems un- 
necessary that two missions should maintain distinct high 
schools looking towards a college grade side by side, when the 
whole number of pupils in both could be instructed more 
economically and perhaps more efficiently in one institution." 

Nor is this all, for, wherever practicable, union of allied 
churches is being sought. I know we are told that Christ's 
words do not call for this. But when 1 hear the laboured argu- 
ments which defend the splitting of American Presbyterianism 
into more than a dozen sects, I sympathize with the child who, 
after a sermon in which the minister had eloquently urged that 
the unity for which the Lord prayed was consistent with 
separation, said: ''Mamma, if Christ didn't mean what He 
said, why didn't He say what He meant? " 

Premature and impracticable efforts should indeed be 
avoided. The deeply rooted differences of centuries are not to 
be eradicated in a day. We must feel our way along with 
caution and wisdom. To attempt too much at first would be 
to accomplish nothing. Work abroad is necessarily a projection 
of the work at home and it will be more or less hampered by 
our American divisions. A prominent clergyman told me that 
he doubted the wisdom of a union of the Asiatic churches as he 
feared that such a union would weaken the sense of responsi- 
bility of the home churches. He thought that a denomination 
in America would take a deeper interest in a comparatively 
small native church wholly dependent upon it than it would in 



298 New Forces In Old China 

an indeterminate part of a larger church. Must the unity of 
the foreign church be sacrificed to the divisions of the home 
church ? Perhaps there is some ground for anticipating such 
objections from home. But if they are found to exist, we 
should not cease seeking union in Asia, but begin preaching 
juster views in America. 

I must not be understood as depreciating the historic dif- 
ferences of Christendom, I am aware that each of the 
great religious bodies stands for some cardinal principle that 
is not emphasized to the same degree by others. The free- 
dom of any given number of believers to witness to a specific 
truth should not be and need not be limited by union. 
The contention here is that the differences of the West 
should not be forced upon the East but that the churches of 
Asia should be given a fair chance to develop a unity large 
enough to comprehend these various forms. If they must be 
divided, let them separate later along their own lines of 
cleavage, not on lines extended from western nations. In one 
place, I met a swarthy Asiatic who knew just enough English 
to be able to tell me that he was a Scotch Presbyterian. Are 
we then to have a Scotch Presbyterian Church in Asia, and a 
Canadian Presbyterian Church, and an Australian Presby- 
terian Church ? Is the American Civil War forever to divide 
communities of Chinese believers into American Northern 
Presbyterians and American Southern Presbyterians? Why 
should we force our unhappy quarrel of a generation ago 
upon them? The American Presbyterian Board has truly 
declared that " the object of the foreign missionary enterprise 
is not to perpetuate on the mission field the denominational 
distinctions of Christendom but to build up on Scriptural lines 
and according to Scriptural principles and methods the 
Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ." It has advised all its 
missions that "we encourage as far as practicable the forma- 
tion of union churches in which the results of the mission 
work of all allied evangelical churches should be gathered, and 



Comity and Cooperation 299 

that they (the missions) observe everywhere the most generous 
principles of missionary comity." The specific approval of 
this declaration, by the General Assembly of 1900, makes this 
the authoritative policy of the Presbyterian Church in the 
United States of America. 

In harmony with this general position, several significant 
efforts towards union are being made. The first movements, 
naturally, are towards a union of communions that are sub- 
stantially alike in polity and doctrine. Already all the Pres- 
byterian and Reformed Boards operating in Japan, Korea, 
Mexico and India have joined in the support of a united native 
church in those lands, and similar movements are in progress 
in other lands and in several churches, notably the Protestant 
Episcopal and the Methodist Episcopal. In China, the 
representatives of the eight Presbyterian denominations of 
Europe and America have met in loving conference and 
planned to unite all the native Christians connected with their 
respective missions into one magnificent and commanding 
Church. 

And now unions of wholly different denominations are being 
discussed. The American Board missionaries intimated to the 
Presbyterian Mission in 1901 that there might be ''no inherent 
difficulty in uniting the membership of the Presbyterian and 
Congregational churches in Chih-li in one common body." A 
similar question is being informally discussed by the American 
Presbyterian missionaries and those of the English Baptist 
Mission in Shantung. The fellowship between the two bodies 
there, as between Presbyterians and Congregationalists in 
Chih-h, is close. 

The local difficulties do not appear to be serious. An 
English Baptist missionary frankly stated in an open conference 
of missionaries of various boards in Chefoo, that his mission, 
with the full knowledge of the home society, took the position 
that the Chinese Christians are not yet fit for congregational 
government, being, as a rule, comparatively ignorant farmers 



3oo New Forces in Old China 

just out of heathenism ; that it had been found necessary to 
select the best men in a local church and give them powers 
which, for all practical purposes, constituted them a session, 
and that the native church as a whole was being more and 
more directed by a body consisting of representatives from such 
sessions. An American Board missionary told me substantially 
the same thing regarding the churches of his mission. We 
should not infer too much from such admissions. Both Bap- 
tists and Congregationalists are loyally attached to their in- 
dependent policy. Both referred, of course, to the temporary 
adaptions necessary in the present stage of mission work. 
As for Presbyterians, their Board's Committee on Policy and 
Methods declared, March 6, 1899 : — 

" It is inexpedient to give formal organization to churches and Presby- 
teries after American models unless there is manifest need therefor, and 
such forms are shown to be best adapted to the people and circumstances. 
In general, the ends of the work will be best attained by simple and 
flexible organizations adapted to the characteristic and real needs of the 
people and designed to develop and utilize spiritual power rather than 
merely or primarily to secure proper ecclesiastical procedure." 

As a matter of fact, neither the representative nor the inde- 
pendent forms of church government are yet in unmodified 
operation on any mission fields, except perhaps in Japan, for 
the simple reason that the typical foreign missionary has thus 
far necessarily exercised the functions of a superintendent or 
bishop of the native churches. Undoubtedly, however, the 
Asiatic churches are being educated to expect self-government 
as soon as they are competent to exercise it. 

Doctrinal differences may present greater difficulties. And 
yet there is a remarkable unanimity of teaching among the 
missionaries of the various denominations in China. However 
widely they may differ among themselves, nearly all agree in 
preaching to the Chinese the great central truths of Christianity 
so that most of the native Christians know little of the sectarian 



Comity and Cooperation 30 1 

distinctions that are so well-understood in America. Such 
differences as are necessary in China might be provided for by 
recognizing the liberty of the local church and the individual 
believer to hold whichever phase of the truth might be pre- 
ferred. The China Inland Mission has shown that this plan 
is feasible. It is composed of missionaries of all Protestant 
denominations, but they work in harmony and build up a 
Chinese church by recognizing the right of brethren to differ 
in the same organization. 

Doubtless isolated cases of embarrassment would occur, but 
they would be insignificant in comparison with the embarrass- 
ments inherent in sectarian divisions. Denominational uni- 
formity is bought at bitter cost when it separates Christians 
into rival camps. Unity in essentials and liberty in non-essen- 
tials are far better than a slavery to non-essentials which 
destroys that oneness of believers for which our Lord prayed. 
In the presence of a vast heathen population, let Christians at 
least remember that their points of disagreement are less vital 
than their points of agreement, that Christianity should, as far 
as possible, present a solid front, and let them devoutly join 
the Conference of Protestant missionaries in Japan in the ring- 
ing proclamation : — " That all those who are one with Christ by 
faith are one body, and that all who love the Lord Jesus and 
His Church in sincerity and truth should pray and labour for 
the full realization of such a corporate oneness as the Master 
Himself prayed for in the night in which He was betrayed." 

It is true that an advanced position on comity sometimes 
operates to the disadvantage of the denomination that espouses 
it. But let us be true to our ideals even if some whom we might 
have reached do go to heaven by another route. Other 
churches are preaching the gospel and those who accept it 
at their hands will be saved. We are in Asia to preach 
Christ, to preach Him as we understand Him, but if any 
one else insists on preaching Him in a given place and 
will do so with equal fidelity to His divinity and atone- 



302 New Forces in Old China 

ment, let us cooperate with them, or federate with them, or 
combine with them, or give up the field to them, as the circum- 
stances may require. The problem before us is not simply 
where we can do good, but where we can do the most good, 
how use to the best advantage the limited resources at our 
command. Givers at home have a right to demand this. 
Many of their gifts involve self-sacrifice, and they should be 
used where a real need exists. " There remains yet very much 
land to be possessed." I have seen enough of it to burden my 
heart as long as I live, toiling, sorrowing, sin-laden multitudes, 
who might be better Christians than we are if they had our 
chance, but who are scattered abroad as sheep having no shep- 
herd. And shall we multiply missionaries in places already 
occupied and dispute as to who shall preach in a given field, 
when these millions are dying without the gospel ? 



PART V 

The Future of China And Our Relation 
To It 



XXV 

IS THERE A YELLOW PERIL 

WILL China ever be able to menace the nations of 
the West ? This is the startling question that many 
sober-minded men are asking. Some writers, in- 
deed, make light of the "yellow peril," characterizing it "a 
mere bugaboo of an excited imagination," because, as they 
allege, China has neither the organization nor the valour to 
fight Europe, and because, if it had, it could not transport its 
army and navy so vast a distance. 

But surely organization and valour can be acquired by the 
Chinese as well as by any other people. Their present help- 
lessness before the aggressive foreigner is rapidly teaching them 
the necessity for the former. As for the latter, it is well known 
that the most dangerous fighter is the strong but peaceably- 
disposed man who has been goaded to desperation by long- 
continued insult and injustice. Americans may discreetly re- 
member that they themselves were once sneeringly described 
as "a nation of shopkeepers who wouldn't and couldn't 
fight." 

It is easy to be deceived by the result of the China- Japan 
War of 1894. The Japanese were successful, not because they 
are abler, but because they had more swiftly responded to the 
touch of the modern world and had organized their govern- 
ment, their army and their navy in accordance with scientific 
methods. More bulky and phlegmatic China was caught nap- 
ping by her enterprising enemy. Despising the profession of 
arms, China gave her energies to scholarship and commerce, 
and filled her regiments and ships with paupers, criminals and 
opium fiends, who were as destitute of courage, intelligence 

3°5 



306 New Forces in Old China 

and patriotism as the darky who explained his flight from the 
battle-field by saying that he would rather be a Hve coward 
than a dead hero. As for the men above them, a Chinese offi- 
cer admitted to a friend of mine that at the outbreak of the 
war with Japan, the army contractors bought a lot of old rifles 
in Germany, which had long before been discarded as worth- 
less by the German army, paying two ounces of silver for each 
gun, and thriftily charging the Government nine ounces. Then 
they bought a cargo of cartridges that did not fit the guns and 
that had been lying in damp cellars for twenty years, and put 
the whole equipment into the hands of raw recruits commanded 
by opium-smokers. 

It is not surprising, therefore, that the Chinese were worsted 
before the onset of the wide-awake Japanese, and that the 
unorganized mobs with which they blindly tried to drive out 
foreigners in 1 900 were easily crushed by the armies of the 
West. But it would be folly to imagine that this is the end. 
It takes a nation of 426,000,000 phlegmatic people longer to 
get under way than a nation of 43,000,000 nervous people, 
but when they do get started, their momentum is proportion- 
ately greater. China has plenty of men who can fight, and 
when they are well commanded, they make as good soldiers as 
there are in the world, as "Chinese Gordon" showed. Was 
not his force called the " Ever Victorious Army," because it 
was never defeated ? Did not Lord Charles Beresford, of the 
English navy, say, after personal inspection of many of the 
troops of China : — " I am convinced that properly armed, dis- 
ciplined and led, there could be no better material than the 
Chinese soldiers " ? Did not Admiral Dewey report that the 
fifty Chinese who served under him in the battle of Manila Bay 
fought so magnificently that they proved themselves equal in 
courage to American sailors and that they should be made 
American citizens by special enactment ? During my tour of 
Asia, I saw the soldiers of England, France, Germany, Italy, 
Austria, Belgium, Russia, America and Japan. But the Chinese 



Is There a Yellow Peril 307 

cavalrymen of Governor Yuan Shih Kai, whom I have de- 
scribed elsewhere,' were as fine troops as I saw anywhere. 
They would be a foe not to be despised. When Bishop Potter 
returned from his tour of Asia, he declared that " when Japan 
has taught China the art of war, neither England nor Russia 
nor Germany will decide the fate of the East." 

It is odd that any intelligent person should suppose that dis- 
tance is an effectual barrier against an aroused and organized 
Asia. It is no farther from China to Europe than from Europe 
to China, and Europe has not found the distance a barrier to 
its designs on China. England, Germany, France, Russia, 
and even little Holland and Portugal, have all managed to 
send ships and troops to the Far East, to seize territory and to 
subjugate the inhabitants. Why should it be deemed impos- 
sible for China, which alone is larger than all these nations 
combined, to do what they have done ? 

The absorption of China by Russia or any other single Euro- 
pean power is not possible for the reason that the attempt 
would be resisted by all the other Powers, including the United 
States and Japan. The world will never permit one of its 
nations to make China what Great Britain has made India. A 
half dozen Powers are determined to have a share if the break 
up comes. 

The real partition of the Empire, however, is hardly probable 
as the case stands to-day. The Powers dread the task of ad- 
ministering a population that is not only huge but of such a 
stubborn character that enormous military expenditures inight 
be required to prevent constant rebellions. A still more potent 
reason lies in the fact that the European nations that covet 
portions of China could not agree among themselves as to the 
division of the spoil. There is, indeed, apparent acquiescence 
in Russian influence in Manchuria, German in Shantung, 
British in the valleys of the Yang-tze and the Pearl, and French 
in Tonquin. But no one nation is quite satisfied with this 
1 Chapter VII. 



308 New Forces in Old China 

division. Each has thus far taken what it could get; but Ger- 
many, France and Russia are far from pleased to see Great 
Britain take the lion's share that she has marked out for her- 
self. Moreover, there are important provinces that are now- 
common ground, like the imperial province of Chih-li, or un- 
appropriated, like several of the interior provinces. Actual 
partition would mean a scramble that would precipitate a gen- 
eral war, and such a war would involve so many uncertainties 
not only as to the result in China but as to possible readjust- 
ments in Europe itself, that the Powers wisely shrink from it. 
So they prefer for the present, at least, the policy of " spheres 
of influence ' ' as giving them a commercial foothold and polit- 
ical influence with less risk of trouble. 

Besides, Great Britain, the United States and Japan are all 
opposed to partition. England's chief interest in China is 
commercial, and it quite naturally prefers to trade with the 
whole of China rather than be confined to a particular section 
of it, for it knows that there would be little trade with any 
parts of China that Russia, France and Germany absolutely 
controlled. So England insists on the integrity of China and 
"the open door." 

The United States has the same commercial interest in this 
respect as Great Britain, with the added motive that partition 
would give her nothing at all in China ; while Japan feels the 
most strongly of all for she has both the reasons that actuate 
the United States and also the vital one of self-preservation. 
The Hon. Chester Holcombe says that several years ago, in an 
interview with an influential member of the Japanese Cabinet 
in Tokio, the conversation turned upon the aggressions of 
European Powers and the weakness of Korea, which had 
recently declared its independence. 



" The Japanese Minister was greatly disturbed at the prospect for the 
future. He insisted that the action taken by Korea, under the guidance 
of China, would not save that little kingdom from attack and absorption. 



Is There a Yellow Peril 309 

Holding up one hand, and separating the first and second fingers as widely 
as possible from the third and fourth, he said : — ' Here is the situation. 
Those four fingers represent the four great European Powers, Great 
Britain, Germany, France and Russia. In the open space between them 
lie Japan, China and Korea.' Then, with really dramatic force, he added : 
< Like the jaws of a huge vise, those fingers are slowly closing, and unless 
some supreme effort is made, they will certainly crush the national life out 
of all three.' " 

So Japan must be reckoned with in any plans which the 
western nations may make for China, and that Japan is a 
factor not to be despised, the Russians have learned to their 
sorrow. Japan believes that she has found the way to make 
her opposition so formidable that all Europe cannot overcome it. 
Beyond any other people in the world, the Chinese furnish the 
raw materials for a world power. All they need is capable 
leadership. This is the gigantic task to which Japan has set 
herself. The alert and enterprising Islanders have entered 
upon a career of national aggrandizement. They realize that 
with their limited territory and population, they can hardly 
hope to become a power of the first class and make headway 
against the tremendous forces of western nations unless they can 
ally themselves with their larger continental neighbour. They 
clearly see their own superiority in organization, discipline and 
modern spirit, and they see also the stupendous power of China 
if it can be aroused and effectively directed. The Japanese 
have never been accused of undue modesty and they firmly 
believe that they are just the people to do this work. This is 
not simply because they are ambitious, but because they see 
that unless Asia can be thus solidified against Europe, the 
whole mighty continent will fall under the control of the white 
men who already dominate so large a part of it. Accordingly 
the Japanese have entered upon the definite policy of not only 
absorbing Korea, but of cultivating the closest possible alliance 
with their former foe. 

The Hon. Augustin Heard, formerly United States Minister 



310 New Forces in Old China 

to Korea, represents Japan as whispering to the sorely beset 
Celestials: — 

" Why shouldn't we work together ? I hate the foreigner as much as 
you do, and should be as glad to get rid of him. Together we can do 
great things ; separate we are feeble. I am too small, and you are, so to 
speak, too big. You are unorganized. Let us join hands and I will do 
what I can to help you get ready ; and when we are ready we will drive 
these insolent fellows into the sea. I have a big army and navy and I 
have learned all the foreigners have to teach. This knowledge I will pass 
on to you. We have great advantages over them. In the first place they 
are a long way from their supplies, and every move they make costs a 
great deal of money. Our men can fight as well as theirs, if they are 
shown how, and there are a great many more of them. They can march 
as well, will require to carry almost no baggage, and do not cost half as 
much to feed. Our wounded men, too, in their own country and climate 
will get well, while theirs will die." 

To this suggestion China listens and ponders : — 

" What are the objections ? There is, first, the contempt which our 
people feel for them ; but that is rapidly dying out. The Japanese 
showed in our last war that small men can fight as well as big ones ; and 
a rifle in the hands of the small man will carry as far and as true as in the 
hands of a larger one. Then, when we have once got rid of the foreigner, 
will Japan not try to keep the leadership and supremacy ? Very likely, 
but then we shall be armed and organized ; we have as able men as they, 
and with our overwhelming numbers shall we not be capable of holding 
our own — nay, if we wish, of taking possession of her ? " ' 

Undoubtedly this imaginary conversation voices the ambition 
of the Japanese and the inclination of an increasing number of 
Chinese. At any rate, the possibilities which such an alliance 
suggests are almost overwhelming. Japan undoubtedly has the 
intelligence and the executive ability to organize as no other 
power could the vast latent forces of China. If any one 
doubts her fitness to discipline and lead, he might obtain some 
heartfelt information from the Russians. Says Mr. George 
Lynch in the nineteenth century : — 

' Article in The New York Tribune, September 7, 1903. 



Is There a Yellow Peril 311 

" I know of no movement more pregnant with possibilities than this 
now in progress which makes towards the Japanization of China. There 
will be great changes in the government and life of that great Empire just 
as soon as the Empress Dowager dies, and she is now an old woman. In 
the upheaval of change, if the industrious, persistent, far-sighted efforts of 
her neighbours bear fruit, we may witness quite a rapid transformation in 
the life of the Empire. That clever conspirator. Sen Yat Sen, said to me 
that, once the Chinese made up their minds to change, they would effect 
in fifteen years as much as it has taken Japan thirty to accomplish. There 
are some men in the East who affect to regard this rapprochement between 
Japan and China with alarm, as carrying in its development the menace 
of a really genuine 'yellow peril.' " 

It certainly needs no argument to prove that if the 426,000,- 
000 Chinese are once fairly committed to the skillful leader- 
ship of the Japanese, a force will be set in motion which could 
be withstood only by the united efforts of all the rest of the 
world. 

The task to which Japan has set herself, however, will not be 
easily achieved. To say nothing of other nations, the Russians 
are not at all disposed to sit quietly by while their foes cajole 
the Chinese. Russia has some designs of her own on China. 
Half Asiatic and semi-barbarous herself, past master in all the 
arts of Oriental diplomacy, patient, stubborn and untroubled 
by scruples, she is a formidable competitor for the leadership 
of China. In Persia, the Russian political policy works largely 
through the missionaries of the Greek Church, whose propa- 
ganda is political as well as religious. The same tactics are 
now being employed in China. The Chih-li correspondent of 
the North China Herald reports that the Holy Russian branch 
of the Greek Church is becoming suspiciously active in North 
China. 

" Their work is spreading, and the methods adopted are such as to at- 
tract all the worst characters of the districts in which they operate. In a 
little town near the Great Wall, where in June there were about a dozen 
converts to the Greek Church, there are now over eighty. Any and all 
are welcome. Their families no less than the men themselves are reck- 



312 New Forces in Old China 

oned as belonging to the Church. The priest has made a round of several 
towns, and, though he speaks no Chinese, by unhesitatingly giving pro- 
tection and assistance in any case of dispute or litigation, he has made it 
clearly evident that for any man in any way under a cloud there is noth- 
ing better than to join the Greek Church. . . . The impression 
among European onlookers is that Russia is preparing to extend her arms 
over Chih-li, and is beginning to smooth her way by gaining over the people 
in the eastern marches of the province. It is a significant fact that the 
Greek Church is known among the people as a « Kuo Chiao ' (National 
Church), a charge from which the Protestants are considered to be en- 
tirely, and the Roman Catholics partially, free." 

China, moreover, will be slow to respond to the overtures of 
Japan, partly because her bulk and phlegmatic disposition and 
lack of public spirit make it difficult for her to act quickly and 
unitedly in anything, partly because Chinese pride and preju- 
dice will not easily yield to the leadership of the haughty little 
island whose people as well as whose territory have long been 
contemptuously regarded as dwarfish and inferior. 

But the shrewd Japanese are making more progress than is 
commonly supposed. Not only have they already obtained the 
great island of Formosa, but they have for years been quietly 
making their commercial interests paramount in Korea. Their 
first move in the war with Russia was to occupy that strategic 
peninsula with a large military force and to secure a treaty with 
the Emperor which gives Japan a virtual protectorate over the 
Land of the Morning Calm. The promise to respect the inde- 
pendence of Korea of course deceives no one. It is probably 
sincere, as diplomatic promises go ; but he is innocent indeed 
who imagines that Korea will be free to do anything that Japan 
disapproves. The freedom will doubtless be of the kind that 
Cuba enjoys — a freedom which gives large liberty in matters 
of internal administration, which relieves the protecting coun- 
try of any trouble or responsibility that it may deem incon- 
venient, but which does not permit any alliance with a third 
nation, and which, for all important international purposes, es- 
pecially of a military character, regards the "independent" 



Is There a Yellow Peril 313 

nation as really dependent. It is quite safe to predict that no 
European power will be unsophisticated enough to assume that 
Korea is **a free and independent nation." The arrangement 
will be in every way to the advantage of the Koreans, who have 
suffered grievously from the pulling and hauling of contending 
powers and from many evils from which the abler and wiser 
Japanese will, in a measure at least, protect them. 

For a long time, too, the Japanese have been strengthening 
the ties which bind them to China. The brainy little Japs 
can be seen to-day in almost all the leading cities of the Mid- 
dle Kingdom. There is a Japanese colony of 200 souls in 
Chefoo and of 1,400 in Tien-tsin. Already the Japanese are 
advising China's government, reorganizing her army, drafting 
her laws and teaching in her university. Even more distant 
countries are not beyond the range of their ambition. The 
leaders of India, restive under British rule, are beginning to 
look with eager sympathy to Japan as the rising Asiatic power. 
Even the Grand Vizier of Persia has paid a state visit to Japan. 
Any hopes of India and Persia are likely to be vain, for Britain 
has a hold upon the former and Russia upon the latter which 
it would be Quixotic in the Japanese to attempt to break. The 
Islanders are not fools. But the Siamese, helplessly exasper- 
ated by the encroachments of the French, would doubtless be 
glad enough to enter into an alliance with Japan and China. 
In 1902, the Crown Prince of Siam visited Japan, where he 
was most graciously welcomed, and increasing numbers of Jap- 
anese who know what they are about are obtaining increasing 
influence in the Land of the White Elephant. 

Nor is it simply by sending Japanese to neighbouring coun- 
tries that Japan is extending her power. She is encouraging 
Chinese students to come to her shores. Dr. David S. Spen- 
cer of Japan declares that 300 Chinese are studying the art of 
war in Japanese barracks, and that over 2,000 bright young 
Chinese are being trained in the schools of Tokio for positions 
of future power in their own country. It is significant that 



314 New Forces in Old China 

Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai, the ablest and most far-seeing states- 
man in China, is reported in the telegraphic despatches of 
February 5, 1904, as having memorialized the Throne in favour 
of an offensive and defensive alliance with Japan to regain 
Manchuria from the Russians, while the North China Daily 
News represents Prince Su, Prince Ching, Na Tung, President 
of the Wai-wu-pu, and Tieh Liang as in favour of the same 
policy. Mr. Holcombe is of the opinion that "the brightest 
spot in the outlook for China is in the increasing probability of al- 
liance and affiliation with Japan. . . . Together these two 
great nations of the Far East may, and it is confidently hoped 
will, safely confront those Governments whose schemes are hos- 
tile to both, and prove their right to manage their own affairs 
and determine their own destinies." ^ 

But whatever the immediate future may be, it is not probable 
that so huge and virile a population as the Chinese will be per- 
manently led by a foreign nation. Even if partition should 
come, it would only hasten the development of those teeming 
millions of people, for foreign domination would mean more 
railway, telegraph and steamship lines. It would mean the 
opening of mines, the development of the press, the complete 
ascendency of Western ideas. Though China as a political or- 
ganism might be divided, the Chinese people would remain — 
the most virile, industrious, untiring people of Asia, and per- 
haps, after due tutelage, a coming power of the world. China's 
assimilative power is enormous. The black man may be domi- 
nated by the white and the Hindu by the English, but China is 
neither Africa nor India. It is true that the present dynasty is 
Manchu, but the Manchus are more akin to the Chinese than 
either the Russians or the Japanese. Moreover the Manchus 
have not tried to rule China from the outside, but have per- 
manently settled in China, and while they have succeeded as a 
rule in maintaining a separate name, they have not made the 
Chinese Manchus, but instead they have themselves been prac- 
' Article in The Outlook, February 13, 1904. 



Is There a Yellow Peril 315 

tically merged into the engulfing mass of China. " Those who 
imagine that the vast population of the Empire will submit 
quietly to the partition of their country, or that any military 
force of moderate size could force it to acquiesce in such a 
scheme, know but little of the Chinese character, of their in- 
tense love of country, or of their unconquerable tenacity of 
purpose." ^ The foreign nation that gets the Chinese, or even 
any considerable portion of them, will probably find that it has 
assumed a burden in comparison with which the Egyptian 
trouble with the Israelites was insignificant, and it is not im- 
probable that the conqueror will some day find himself 
conquered. 

At any rate, portentous possibilities are conjured up by the 
contemplation of this mighty nation ! There are upheavals 
compared with which our revolutions are but spasms. There 
are religions whose adherents outnumber ours two to one. 
There is a civilization which was old before ours was born. 
Are we to believe that these swarming legions were created for 
no purpose ? Are their generations to appear and fall and rot 
unnoticed, like the leaves of the forest ? Degraded, supersti- 
tious, many of them still are. But they need only to be organ- 
ized and directed to do untold mischief. More than once 
already has a similar catastrophe occurred. Some prodigy of 
skill and genius has seized such enormous forces, given them 
discipline and coherency and hurled them like a thunderbolt 
upon Christendom. Sometimes the shock has been frightful, 
and before it the proudest of empires and the stateliest of insti- 
tutions have reeled and fallen. This was the Titan-like 
achievement of Alaric, of Genseric, of Attila, and of Moham- 
med. Yet Goths and Vandals, Huns and Mohammedans, 
combined, had not half the numbers upon which we now look. 
Give the 426,000,000 Chinese the results of modern discovery 
and invention, and imagination falters. They have the terri- 
tory. They have the resources. They have the population 
'Chester A. Hoi combe, article in The Outlook, February 13, 1904. 



316 New Forces in Old China 

and they are now acquiring the knowledge. China will fight 
no more like the barbarians of old with spears and bows and 
arrows, for despite the treaty of 1900 prohibiting the importa- 
tion of arms, the Chinese are buying repeating rifles and Maxim 
guns, while in their own arsenals they are turning out vast 
quantities of munitions of war. The American consul at Leip- 
sic, Germany, reports to the State Department that an Austrian 
company has just received an order for so large a number of 
small arms for the Chinese Government that it will take several 
years to fill it, even with additional forces of men to whom it 
has given employment. This is only one of many reports 
received in Washington within recent months that the factories 
of both Germany and Austria are busy supplying the Chinese 
with modern arms and ammunition. The armies of China 
will soon be as well equipped as the armies of Europe. 

Incredible as it may seem, up to the year 1901, promotion 
in the army was often determined by trials of strength with 
stone weights, dexterity in sword exercises and skill in the use 
of the bow and arrow. But in that year, an Imperial Decree 
declared that such tests "have no relation to strategy and to 
that military science which is indispensable for military offi- 
cers," commanded that they be abolished and that military 
academies should be established in the provincial capitals in 
which the science of modern war should be diligently studied. 
Not content with this, forty young men were sent to Europe 
in 1903 for the express purpose of studying the latest military 
and naval methods of the white man. And now Sir Robert 
Hart proposes not only a reorganization of China's civil service 
but the building of a first-class navy of thirty battleships and 
cruisers, and he thinks that the enormous sum of ;^2oo,ooo,ooo 
a year can be obtained for this purpose by an increase in the 
land tax. Then, he declares, China will be enabled ** not 
only to make her voice heard, but to take an effective share in 
the settlement of questions in the Far East." The London 
Times rather contemptuously asserts that " the entire project 



Is There a Yellow Peril 317 

in its present shape is visionary from beginning to end." 
But Sir Robert Hart has spent fifty years in China, having 
entered the British consular service in 1854 and became In- 
spector-General of Maritime Customs in 1863. During the 
greater part of this long period, he has been an adviser of 
the Chinese Government and the most influential foreigner in 
the Empire. The recommendation of such a man is not to be 
lightly dismissed as "visionary," especially when it is made to 
a people who have been taught by bitter experience that a 
modern armament is their only hope of defense against the 
foreigner. As late as the beginning of the year 1904, Russia 
ridiculed the idea that Japan could do anything against a 
western power, and all the rest of Europe as well as America, 
while admiring the pluck of the Japanese, confidently expected 
them to be crushed by the Slav. Wise men will think twice in 
the future before they sneer at the yellow race. If Japan in 
half a century could go from junks and cloisonne to battle- 
ships and magazine rifles, and to the handling of them, too, 
more scientifically and effectively than they were ever handled 
by a white man, why should it be deemed chimerical that China, 
with equal ability and greater resources and certainly no less 
provocation, should in time achieve even vaster results, particu- 
larly as Japan is not only willing but eager to teach her ? " We 
do not lack either men of intellect or brilliant talents, capable 
of learning and doing anything they please ; but their move- 
ments have hitherto been hampered by old prejudices," said 
the Emperor Kuang Hsii, Precisely, and the stern, relentless 
pressure of necessity is now shattering some of those ' ' old 
prejudices." "You urge us to move faster," said a Chinese 
magistrate to a foreigner. " We are slow to respond for we 
are a conservative people ; but if you force us to start, we may 
move faster and farther than you like." 

Some things may yet occur undreampt of in all our philos- 
ophy. We observe the changing march of world powers, 
the majestic procession in which the pomp and glitter of 



318 New Forces in Old China 

thrones are mingled with the tears and blood of calamity 
and war. What a pageant ! Yesterday, Chaldea, Egypt, As- 
syria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome! To-day, England, 
Germany, Russia, Japan, the United States I To-morrow, 
what ? What, indeed, if not some of these now awakening 
nations ! It is by no means impossible that some new 
Jenghiz Khan or Tamerlane may arise, and with the weapons 
of modern warfare in his hands, and these uncounted millions 
at his command, gaze about on the pygmies that we call the 
Powers ! Christendom has too long regarded heathen nations 
with a pity not unmingled with contempt. It is now begin- 
ning to regard them with a respect not unmingled with fear. 
There is not a statesman in Europe to-day who is not troubled 
with dire forebodings regarding these teeming hordes, that ap- 
pear to be just awakening from the torpor of ages, and some 
thoughtful observers fear that a movement has already begun 
which will lead to great wars whose issue no man can fore- 
see, and to stupendous reconstructions of the map of the 
world. The Emperor of Germany has painted a picture which 
has startled not so much by its art as by its meaning. " On a 
projecting rock, illuminated by a shining cross, stand the alle- 
gorical figures of the civilized nations. At the feet of this 
rocky eminence lies the wide plain of European culture, from 
which rise countless cities and the steeples and spires of 
churches of every denomination. But ominous clouds are 
gathering over this peaceful- landscape. A stifling gloom 
o'erspreads the sky. The glare of burning cities lights up the 
road by which the barbaric hordes of Asia are approaching. 
The Archangel Michael points to the fearsome foe, waving the 
nations on to do battle in a sacred cause. Underneath are 
the words — 'Peoples of Europe, keep guard over your most 
sacred treasures ! ' " 

Making all due allowance for the exuberance of Emperor 
William's imagination, the fact remains that his picture repre- 
sents the thought that is uppermost to-day in the minds of the 



Is There a Yellow Peril 319 

world's thinkers. All see that the next few decades are big 
with possibilities of peril. 

" The rudiments of Empire here 
Are plastic yet and warm, 
The chaos of a mighty world 
Is rounding into form." 

One thinks instinctively of the words of Isaiah: "The 
noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great peo- 
ple ; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered 
together; the Lord of hosts mustereth the hosts of the battle." 
Plainly, the overshadowing problem of the present age is the, 
relation of China to the world's future. Whether recent events 
have lessened the danger, we shall see in the next chapter. 




XXVI 

FRESH REASON TO HATE THE FOREIGNER 

F course, the victorious march of the Allies upon 
I Peking, the capture of the city, the flight of the Em- 
peror and the Empress Dowager and the humiliating 
terms of peace taught the Chinese anew their helplessness be- 
fore the modern equipment of western nations and the neces- 
sity of learning the methods of the white man if they were ever 
to hold their own against him. But defeat, while always hard 
to bear, does not always embitter the conquered against the 
conqueror. On the contrary, there are evidences that the 
Chinese respect and like the Japanese far more since they were 
soundly whipped by them in 1894 and 1895. In considering, 
therefore, the effect upon the Chinese of the suppression of the 
Boxer uprising, we must bear in mind not so much the fact of 
victory by the Allies as the treatment which they accorded their 
prostrate foe. Was that treatment dignified and just? Did 
the soldiers of alleged Christian nations behave with the sobriety 
and fairness which so eminently characterized the Japanese 
troops after the China-Japan War ? Have the Chinese reason 
to regard foreigners in the future as men who will sternly 
punish injustice and treachery, but who are at the same time as 
moral and humane and trustworthy as might be reasonably ex- 
pected of the representatives of a higher civilization and a 
purer religion? For answer, let us turn to the conduct of the 
allied armies, led by experienced officers of high rank and 
working in harmony with diplomatic officials who were sup- 
posed to incarnate the spirit and methods of the most enlight- 
ened nations of the earth. The testimony of witnesses will be 
interesting. 

320 



Fresh Reason to Hate the Foreigner 321 

Dr. Arthur H. Smith, who was in Peking at the time, 
writes : — 

" Bating all exaggerations, it remains true that scores of walled cities 
have been visited by armed bodies of foreign soldiers, the district mag- 
istrate — and sometimes the Prefect — held up and bullied to force him to 
pay a large sum of money, with no other reason than the imperative de- 
mand and the threat of dire consequences on refusal. In one case the 
Russians kidnapped the Prefect of Yung-ping-fu and carried him off to Port 
Arthur. At Ting-chou the French did the same to the sub-prefect, the only 
energetic magistrate in all that region, bearing him in triumph to Pao- 
ting-fu and leaving the district to Boxers and to chaos. At Tsang-chou 
the Germans came in force, looted the yamen of General Mei, the only 
Chinese officer of rank who had been constantly fighting and destroying 
Boxers for nearly a year, drove him away and released all the Boxer 
prisoners in the jails of the city, plundering the yamen of the friendly and 
efficient sub-prefect who had saved the lives of the foreign families close 
by the city. Is it any wonder that General Mei complained that • on eight 
sides he had no face left.' . . . The robbery of Chinese on the way 
home with the avails of their day's work has been systematically carried 
on by some of the soldiers from Christian lands. Even foreigners are 
* held up ' on the street by drunken soldiers, and it is becoming necessary 
never to go out without one's revolver — a weapon generally quite super- 
fluous in almost any part of China." 

Bishop D. H. Moore, of the Methodist Church, who hurried 
to Peking as soon as the way was open, wrote : — 

" You can hardly form any conception of the exposure and hardships 
under any but the American and Japanese flags. The English have 
scarcely any but the Sikhs, who are lustful and lootful to a degree. The 
Russians are brutal and the Germans deserve their reputation for brutality. 
With Lowry and Hobart, I responded to the agonizing appeal of a hus- 
band to drive out a German corporal who, on duty and armed, had run 
him off and was mistreating his wife. The instance is but one of hundreds 
of daily occurrence. The French are very devils at this sort of outrage. 
On the advance to Peking, beyond Tung-chou, they found married fam- 
ilies — men, women and children — cowering in barges on the canal and 
volleyed into them. Every man, every cart, every boat must fly a flag. 
Coolies are cruelly impressed and often cruelly mistreated. The great 
Christian nations of the world are being represented in China by robbing, 



322 New Forces in Old China 

raping, looting soldiery. This is part of China's punishment ; but what 
will she think of Christianity ? Of course, our soldiers are the best be- 
haved ; but there are desperate characters in every army." 

Captain Frank Brinkley, the editor of the Japan Weekly 
Mail, penned the following indignant paragraph : — 

«* It sends a thrill of horror through every white man's bosom to learn 
that forty missionary women and twenty-five little children were butchered 
by the Boxers. But in Tung-chou alone, a city where the Chinese made 
no resistance and where there was no fighting, 573 Chinese women of the 
upper classes committed suicide rather than survive the indignities they 
had suffered. Women of the lower classes fared similarly at the hands of 
the soldiers, but were not unwilling to survive their shame. With what 
show of consistency is the Occident to denounce the barbarity of the Chi- 
nese, when Occidental soldiers go to China and perpetrate the very acts 
which constitute the very basis of barbarity ? " 

When I asked the Rev. Dr. D. Z. Sheffield, for many years 
a missionary of the American Board in Tung-chou, whether 
this statement was accurate, he replied that it was not only true, 
but that it was an understatement of the truth. 

Fay Chi Ho, an intelligent and reliable Chinese Christian, 
gives the following account of what he personally saw : — 

" I travelled with a British convoy going by boat, occupying quarters 
on a Major's boat with his Sikh soldiers and cook. I know that the 
Major was not a Christian man, for he smoked and drank all day long 
and was constantly cursing, striking and kicking his men, especially his 
cook. He also gave his orders in loud tones, with fierce mien and glar- 
ing eyes, and we all feared him exceedingly. Every day at noon the 
Major would take four Sikhs and go to villages several miles from the 
river for loot, always compelling me to accompany him as interpreter. 
He would catch the first man whom he saw in a village and compel him 
to act as guide to the homes of the rich. So successful was he on these 
raids that by the time he reached Tung-chou, he had three new carts, 
three donkeys, five or six sheep, and much clothing and bric-^-brac. 

" One day about noon, we reached a village from which most of the 
people had fled, and entering a home of wealth found there only a man 
about fifty or sixty years old who received us very courteously. Immedi- 



Fresh Reason to Hate the Foreigner 323 

ately the Major demanded money, and the old man replied that though 
he had money it was not at hand. The Major then commanded his soldiers 
to bind him, while he himself went into the house to search for money 
He found several weapons, among them a revolver and a sword with a 
red scarf bound on the handle. So he insisted that the old man must be 
a Boxer, and shot him vi^ith his own hand as he lay bound. As usual he 
impressed ten or more young men in the village to carry his loot, then 
compelled the strongest of them to remain and drag his boats. . . . 
Later, my brother told me in detail how some Sikhs had come to the vil- 
lage one day, and, seizing him and several neighbours, had tied a rope to 
their queues, then stringing them together like mules, with men leading in 
front and driving behind, had taken them to the river bank to drag boats. 
My brother had never done such work before. Wading in mud and 
water, sometimes up to his waist, with the whip lash to urge him on, he 
had dragged until nightfall, and then, not being allowed to sleep on the 
boat, had lain down on the wet river bank." i 

During ray own visit in north China in the summer of 1901, 1 
visited the hospital of the London Mission in Tien-tsin, immor- 
talized by John Kenneth Mackenzie. I found that it w^as be- 
ing used as a hospital for British soldiers who were suffering 
from venereal diseases. What a spectacle for the Chinese ! 
What a coarse travesty of the religion of the pure Nazarene 
that the land from which the great British missionary came 
should crowd with foul white men the hospital that he had built 
with faith and love and prayer ! In the same city, the fine 
Y. M. C. A. building was almost deserted by the Chinese be- 
cause it was so situated that to reach it they would have to pass 
through the Taku Road in the Foreign Settlement, a street 
which was a cesspool of vice, lined with saloons, dance halls 
and gambling hells, and its sidewalks so crowded with fast 
women — French, German, American and Japanese — and with 
drunken, quarrelling foreign soldiers, that no respectable Chi- 
nese, or for that matter no decent foreign woman, could trav- 
erse it without fear of insult or abuse. 

In Peking for several months after the relief of the legations, 
^"Two Heroes of Cathay," pp. 154, 155, 158. 



324 New Forces in Old China 

even respectable American ladies, to say nothing of Chinese 
women, could not prudently ride out except in closed carts, so 
great was the probability of indignity at the hands of foreign 
soldiers; while at the entrance of famous palaces, the " public 
is politely requested not to kick the Chinese attendants because 
they decline to open doors which they are forbidden to un- 
lock" — a request that the conduct of foreigners had shown to 
be far from unnecessary. 

In the pillaging of property, savages could not have been 
more lawless than the white men from "the highly civilized 
nations of the West." 

" It is not literally true that every house in Peking was looted. There 
were some places in obscure alleys, and in many of the innumerable and al- 
most impenetrable cul-de-sacs with which the capital abounds, that escaped. 
But persistent inquiry appears to leave no doubt of the fact that practically 
every yamen in the city has been rummaged, and practically there is noth- 
ing left of the contents of any of them." ' 

Words fail me to describe the beauties of the famous Sum- 
mer Palace outside the city. With its gardens, temples, pa- 
godas, bridges, lotus-ponds, statues, colonnades, walks and 
drives, it would do credit to the most highly civilized nation 
of Europe. A barbarous people could never have made such 
a paradise. The British and French in i860 burned a con- 
siderable part of it, but the enclosure is so vast (twelve square 
miles) and the buildings are so numerous that the destroyed 
section appears almost insignificant. Within the grounds is a 
beautiful lake, fed by great springs and bordered by temples 
and avenues of trees and the yellow-roofed palaces of the 
Emperor, while near by rise the Western Hills. 

This Palace is the favourite residence of the Empress Dow- 
ager and she spends long summers there. Here, too, the Em- 
peror loves to come during the heated term and both have 

' North China Daily News. 



Fresh Reason to Hate the Foreigner 325" 

followed the example of their imperial predecessors in lavishing 
great sums upon its adornment. 

After the siege the Russians occupied it at first, and when 
they left, the British and Italians took possession. Between 
the three so little was left that I found devastation reigning in 
that once splendidly-furnished Palace. All the rare and costly 
bric-a-brac had been carried away, the mirrors had been broken 
and the permanent ornaments defaced. A noble bronze statue 
of Buddha, in the temple crowning the summit of the hill, was 
lying ignominiously on the floor among a pile of debris, one 
daik hand stiffly pointing into the air. In a stately pavilion, I 
saw two superb golden statues of Buddha standing upright and 
looking unusually dignified, but on going behind them, I found 
that great holes had been punched in their backs. 

Even the places dedicated to science and religion were not 
spared. At the celebrated Astronomical Observatory not an 
instrument was left. Every one had been carried off by the 
orders of men high in authority at the French and German 
Legations, and the whole place was totally wrecked. What 
possible excuse could there have been for destroying a place for 
studying the heavens? At the Examination Grounds, conse- 
crated for centuries to learning and memorable for the myriads 
of China's brightest men who have there demonstrated their 
fitness, according to China's methods, for high preferment — at 
these Examination Grounds, most of the 8,500 cells had been 
stripped of their woodwork to cook the rations of the European 
armies, roofs had been torn off and even stone walls had been 
injured in sheer wantonness. 

The Temple to the Gods of Land and Grain and the Temple 
for Rain are sacred places to the Chinese. To the latter the 
Emperor comes in solemn state in time of drought to pray for 
rain, or, if he cannot come, he sends the highest official of his 
realm. It is in a spacious park and the buildings must have 
been stately and handsome before the Boxer outbreak. But 
when I saw them, they were sadly defaced. The stone balus- 



326 New Forces in Old China 

trades and ornaments had been broken off, the walls had been 
injured and one of the buildings was in ruins. 

It was, of course, inevitable that much havoc should be 
wrought in the tumult of war. It was necessary that supplies 
for half-naked and famished besieged thousands should be taken 
from deserted grain and clothing-shops. It was expedient that 
certain public buildings should be destroyed by order of the 
allied generals as a warning for the future. But why were 
soldiers and thieves allowed to steal the bric-a-brac and furni- 
ture and break the mirrors of the Emperor's personal apart- 
ments, wantonly to shatter beautiful columns, deface rare 
works of art, punch holes in gilded statues, maliciously smash 
the heads of thousands of exquisitely-carved figures and 
lions, and wreck venerable places associated with learning and 
art ? The world is poorer for some of this havoc, and it will 
be a generation before it can be remedied, if indeed, some of 
the edifices are ever restored to their former beauty. Can we 
wonder that the Chinese continue to hate and fear the for- 
eigner? The New York Times declared that " every outrage 
perpetrated on foreigners in China has been repaid tenfold by 
the brutalities perpetrated by the allied armies. It is," added 
the editor, " simply monstrous that the armies of Christian 
nations, sent out to punish barbarism and protect the rights of 
foreigners in China, should themselves be guilty of barbarism. 
Revenge has been accompanied by mean and cruel and flagrant 
robbery. The story is one to fill all rational minds with disgust 
and shame." 

The exasperation of the Chinese has not been diminished by 
the virtual fortifications which the foreign Powers have erected 
in the imperial capital since the crushing of the Boxer uprising. 
Most of the Legations took advantage of the panic and con- 
fusion which followed the raising of the siege, to seize large 
tracts adjoining their former compounds. The native buildings 
upon them were demolished. Massive walls were erected and 
cannon mounted upon them. Over the water-gate in the city 



Fresh Reason to Hate the Foreigner 327 

wall, through which the allied troops entered the city, the 
Powers have cut a new gateway which they hold and guard. 
In addition, they have taken possession of all that part of the 
city wall which commands Legation Street, made barricades 
and built a fort upon it opposite the German Legation. For- 
eign soldiers patrol that wall night and day. On the other 
side of the Legations, a wide space has been cleared by destroy- 
ing hundreds of Chinese dwellings and shops, and no buildings 
or trees or obstructions of any kind are allowed on that space, 
which can thus be swept by rifle and Gatling-gun fire in the 
event of any future trouble. Within, ample stores of arms, 
ammunition and food have been stored so that if another out- 
break should occur, the Legations cannot be besieged as they 
were in the memorable summer of 1900. 

All this, of course, is perfectly natural and perhaps neces- 
sary. The Legations would be deemed lacking in ordinary 
prudence if they did not guard against the repetition of their 
grievous experiences during the Boxer uprising. But looking 
at the matter from the view-point of the Chinese, can we mar- 
vel that it is resented ? Would not a European government be 
stung to the quick if other nations were to fortify themselves 
in that fashion at its capital ? Would Americans endure it for 
a day at Washington? 

Altogether, it must be admitted that the writer of " Letters 
of a Chinese Official " has all too much reason to arraign 
western civilization as sordid, arrogant and cruel and to assert 
that Europeans and Americans, while pretending to follow the 
teachings of Christ, are really ignoring them. His words are 
bitter : — 

" Yes, it is we who do not accept it that practice the gospel of peace ; 
it is you who accept it that trample it under foot. And irony of ironies ! 
— it is the nations of Christendom who have come to us to teach us by 
sword and fire that Right in this world is powerless unless it be supported 
by Might. Oh, do not doubt that we shall learn the lesson ! And woe 
to Europe when we have acquired it. You are arming a nation of four 



328 New Forces in Old China 

hundred millions, a nation which, until you came, had no better wish 
than to live at peace with themselves and all the world. In the name of 
Christ you have sounded the call to arms ! In the name of Confucius 
we respond ! " ^ 

And he closes the book as follows : — 

" Unless you of the West will come to realize the truth ; unless you 
will understand that the events which have shaken Europe are the 
Nemesis of a long course of injustice and oppression ; unless you will learn 
that the profound opposition between your civilization and ours gives no 
more ground why you should regard us as barbarians than we you ; un- 
less you will treat us as a civilized power and respect our customs and our 
laws ; unless you will accord us the treatment you would accord to any 
European nation and refrain from exacting conditions you would never 
dream of imposing on a Western power — unless you will do this, there is no 
hope of any peace between us. You have humiliated the proudest nation 
in the world ; you have outraged the most upright and just ; with what 
results is now abundantly manifest." 

Whether the author is really a Chinese official as he claims 
to be, or a European resident in China writing under a Chinese 
pseudonym, there can be no doubt that he fairly represents the 
opinions of the old, conservative, ferociously irreconcilable 
mandarin class regarding the white man. Western nations, in 
their plans regarding the future of China, must take into 
consideration the existence of that spirit and the acts which, 
while not creating it, have intensified and inflamed it till it has 
come to be something to be reckoned with. Undoubtedly, one 
of the lessons that the Chinese have learned from defeat is 
bitterer hatred of the alien whose vandalisms and atrocities 
were so shameful as to nullify, in part at least, the benefit that 
might otherwise have resulted. 

I am glad to report that, with the single exception of the 
Japanese who were universally assigned the first place from the 
view-point of good behaviour, I heard fewer complaints regard- 
ing the American troops than any other. One Colonel, indeed, 
1 " Letters of a Chinese Official," pp. 64, 65. 



Fresh Reason to Hate the Foreigner 329 

lamented that his regiment "was thoroughly demoralized," 
and there were some instances of intemperance and lawlessness, 
in one case a Japanese patrol bringing in several American 
soldiers who had been found at midnight in a Chinese house. 
But as a whole, the conduct of the Americans was much better 
than that of most of the Europeans. That the Chinese felt the 
difference was apparent in the number of American flags that 
they raised over their houses and shops. It was significant, 
too, that the districts of the city that were occupied by 
European regiments were avoided, as far as possible, by the 
Chinese, while the district controlled by the Americans was 
thronged. 

Nor need any American be ashamed of the policy of his 
Government. It is true that the majority of the Ameri- 
cans in China believe that our national policy, prior to and 
during the Boxer uprising, was weak and short-sighted. They 
spoke highly of Minister Conger and several of the American 
Consuls, particularly of Consul John Fowler, at Chefoo. But 
I was repeatedly told that our Government did not appear to 
realize that there were any other American citizens or 
properties in China than those in the Peking Legation ; that it 
did practically nothing to rescue its citizens in the prefecture of 
Paoting-fu and the province of Shan-si ; that, while Americans 
condemn the policy of the European Powers, they have been 
for years sponging benefits secured by them for all foreigners ; 
and that, if it had not been for their control of the situation, 
not an American could have lived in China. The opinion was 
well-nigh universal that the Washington Administration was 
too much influenced by the astute Chinese Minister, Wu Ting- 
fang, who was believed to be an adept in " the ways that are 
dark and the tricks that are vain," and whose alleged success 
in "hoodwinking the Government and people of the United 
States ' ' provoked the average foreigner in the Far East to the 
use of strong language. 

Though I confess that I am not able satisfactorily to explain 



330 New Forces in Old China 

the course of our Government in some important particulars, 
it seems to me that these sweeping criticisms are too severe. 
During the dark days of the siege of Peking, I was brought 
into frequent correspondence with President McKinley and 
Secretary of State Hay, and I vividly and gratefully re- 
member the sympathy and cooperation which they invariably 
gave. They were as anxious as any one, and tried to do their 
best in circumstances new, strange and of extraordinary diffi- 
culty. As for the Chinese Minister to the United States, of 
course he did what he could to "save face" for his country. 
That was an essential part of his duty. But while we cannot 
always agree with him, we should, as friends of China, 
recognize the fact that by his ability and tact, he largely 
increased popular interest in and respect for the Chinese 
people. 

Taking our Government's policy as a whole, I believe that it 
has been more in accord with Christian principles than that of 
any other nation. If our Government has erred in trusting the 
Chinese too much, that is 'at least better than erring by trust- 
ing them too little. If it has failed to do for its own citizens 
all that it ought to have done, it has not wronged or humiliated 
the Chinese Government, There is no blood of Chinese 
women and children on the hands of Americans in China, No 
record of outrage and iniquity blackens the page on which the 
American part of the Boxer outbreak is written. If our nation 
has been unjust to any, it has been to its own. Generations 
will pass before the northern provinces will forget the bitter- 
ness of resentment which they now feel towards the European 
Powers. But already the Chinese are beginning to understand 
that the American Government is a friend ; that it does not 
seek their territory ; that it will not be a party to extortion ; 
that it does not want to destroy China but to save her ; that its 
object is not to rule her, but to fit her to rule herself, and that it 
desires only freedom for its citizens to trade and to communi- 
cate those ideas of religion which we ourselves originally 



Fresh Reason to Hate the Foreigner 331 

received from the East, which have brought to us inestimable 
blessings, and which will, in China as in America, result in the 
noblest character for the individual and the most stable 
institutions for the state. 

The Chinese keenly appreciate the fresh evidence of Ameri- 
ca's spirit of justice in connection with the payment of 
the indemnity. When, before the payment of the first in- 
stallment in 1902, the fall in the value of the silver tael led the 
European Powers to insist that China should pay in gold, 
thereby virtually increasing the indemnity, it was the United 
States again which did everything in its power to moderate the 
demands of the European nations. If the legislative branch of 
the American Government would only deal as justly with the 
Chinese in the United States as the State Department deals 
with the Chinese in China, the era of good feeling would be 
greatly promoted. 

But America is not prominent enough in China to make her 
example a determinate factor in the attitude of the Empire 
towards foreigners, nor are the people as a whole likely to dis- 
criminate in favour of a few Americans among the hosts of 
aggressive, grasping, domineering Europeans. 

Moreover, the majority of the Chinese hear only what their 
scholars and officials tell them, and these worthies are careful 
to adjust the account to suit their own purposes, and to save 
the national " face." They blandly assure the credulous people 
that the foreign armies did not follow the court because they 
dared not ; that the alien troops left the capital because they 
were driven out by Chinese patriots ; and that the Boxers in- 
flicted crushing defeat upon their foes. During my visit in Tsing- 
tau, the Germans were digging sewers, broad and deep, with 
laterals to every house and public building, and many of the 
Chinese actually believed that these sewers were intended to 
be underground passageways, down which the foreigners could 
flee to their boats when they were assailed by the redoubtable 
Boxers ! The best-informed men I met in China, from Sir 



33^ New Forces in Old China 

Robert Hart down, were fearful that the end was not near, and 
that an official order might repeat the whole bloody history. 
At a conference with forty representative missionaries of all 
denominations in Shanghai, August, 1901, a very large majority 
agreed with the Rev. Dr. Parker, of the Southern Methodist 
Church, in the statement: "We are not out of the trouble 
yet; the reactonaries are in the minority, but they are in 
power. They have learned nothing and they will try again 
to drive us out unless the Powers unseat them and reinstate the 
Emperor and the Reform Party." 



XXVII 

HOPEFUL SIGNS 

THE future is not necessarily so doubtful as the facts 
and opinions cited in the preceding chapter might in 
themselves seem to indicate. It is true that the daily 
press often contains accounts of tumults and revolutions in 
China. But an Empire a third larger than all Europe, with 
an enormous population, a weak central Government, corrupt 
local officials, few railroads and frequent floods, famines and 
epidemics, is certain to have uprisings somewhere most of the 
time. A European reading in the daily despatches from the 
United States of strikes, riots, martial law, the burning of 
negroes, the mobbing of Chinese and the corruption of cities, 
might with equal justice get the impression that our own 
country is in continual turmoil. The Imperial Government in 
China pays little attention to what is going on in other parts 
of the country. 

" Each province has its own army, navy, and system of taxation. . . . 
So long as the provincial government sends its Peking supplies, ad- 
ministers a reasonable sop to its clamorous provincial duns, quells incip- 
ient insurrections, gives employment to its army of expectants, staves off 
foreign demands, avoids rows of all kinds, and, in a w^ord, keeps up a 
decent external surface of respectability, no questions are asked; all re- 
ports and promotions are passed ; the Viceroy and his colleagues ' enjoy 
happiness,' and every one makes his ' pile.' The Peking Government 
makes no new laws, does nothing of any kind for any class of persons 
leaves each province to its own devices, and, like the general staff of an 
army organization, both absorbs successful men, and gives out needy or 
able men to go forth and do likewise." ^ 

• E, H. Parker, " China," pp. 167, 169. 
333 



334 New Forces in Old China 

In these circumstances, the governors of provinces have con- 
siderable independent power in internal affairs, and a rebellion 
even of formidable proportions is often ignored by the Imperial 
Government in Peking as a purely local matter to be dealt with 
by the provincial authorities, much as the United States Gov- 
ernment leaves riots and mobs to the State officials. 

Moreover, to a greater extent than any other people, the 
Chinese are led by their officials, and some of the highest 
officials in Peking and the coast provinces have learned that 
massacres of foreigners result in the coming of more foreigners, 
in the capture and destruction of cities, in humiliating terms 
of peace, in heavy indemnities, in large losses of territory and 
in the degradation and perhaps the execution of the magistrates 
within whose jurisdiction the troubles occur. 

There are, moreover, unmistakable indications of a new 
movement among the Chinese. One reason why they have 
been so ignorant of the rest of the world and even of distant 
parts of their own country was the lack of any facilities for 
transmitting mail. The only way that the missionaries in the 
interior could get their letters was by employing private mes- 
sengers or availing themselves of a chance traveller. But now 
a modern post-office system, superintended by Sir Robert Hart, 
already includes 500 of the principal cities of the Empire and 
is being rapidly extended to others. 

Ten years ago, there were practically no newspapers in China 
except those published by foreigners in the ports, all of which 
were in English save one which was in the German language. 
The only periodicals in Chinese were a few issued by the 
missionaries with, of course, a very limited circulation, chiefly 
among the Christians. There was no such thing as a Chinese 
press in the proper sense of the term. Now, besides a French, 
a Russian and a second German paper, there are nearly a hun- 
dred Chinese newspapers, many of them edited by the Chinese 
themselves and others by Japanese, and all, aided by the rail- 
way, the telegraph and the post-office, bringing new ideas to 



Hopeful Signs 335 

multitudes. ( On the basis of a joint report to the Throne by 
Viceroy Chang Chih-tung and Chang Pei-hsi, chancellor of the 
Peking University, an imperial decree has ordered the inau- 
guration of a new system of education. The plan is to have a 
university in the capital of each province, with auxiliary pre- 
fectural and district colleges and schools and the whole system 
to culminate in the Imperial University in Peking. In all these 
institutions western arts and sciences are to be taught side by 
side with the old Confucian classics. " The Viceroys and 
Governors of provinces are commanded to order their subordi- 
nates to hasten the establishment of these schools. Let this 
decree be published through the Empire." 

Nor have the new imperial decrees stopped here. A few 
decades ago, ambitious Chinese youths who sought an educa- 
tion abroad at their own expense were imprisoned on their re- 
turn to their native land. One whom I met in Shantung gave 
me a vivid account of his arrest and incarceration in a filthy 
dungeon as if he had been a common criminal. But a recent 
edict of the Emperor directs the provincial Governors to select 
young men of ability and send them to Europe for special train- 
ing with a view to their occupying high posts on their return. 

One of the most firmly rooted customs of old China was the 
examination essay for literary degrees on some purely Chinese 
subject relating to a remote past. But August 29, 1901, to the 
amazement of the literati, an imperial edict abolished that 
time-honoured custom and directed that in the future candi- 
dates for degrees as well as for office should submit short essays 
on such modern topics as Western science, governments, laws, 
and kindred subjects. The following extracts from the ex- 
amination questions for the Chu Jen (M. A.) degree in 1903 
will indicate the extraordinary character of this change. 

Honan — " What improvements are to be derived from the 
study of foreign agriculture, commerce, and postal 
systems ? 



33^ 



New Forces in Old China 



Kiang-su and An-huei — "What are the chief ideas underlying 
Austrian and German prosperity? How do for- 
eigners regulate the press, post-office, commerce, 
railways, banks, bank-notes, commercial schools, 
taxation — and how do they get faithful men? 
Where is the Caucasus and how does Russia rule 
it? 

Kiang-si — " How many sciences theoretical and practical are 
there? In what order should they be studied? 
Explain free trade and protection. What are the 
military services of the world ? What is the bear- 
ing of the Congress of Vienna, the Treaty of Berlin 
and the Monroe Doctrine on the Far East? 
Wherein lies the naval supremacy of Great Britain ? 
What is the bearing of the Siberian Railway and 
Nicaragua Canal on China ? 

Shantung — "What is Herbert Spencer's philosophy of sociology? 
Define the relations of land, labour and capital. 
State how best to develop the resources of China 
by mines and railway ? How best to modify our 
civil and criminal laws to regain authority over 
those now under extra-territoriality privileges? 
How best to guard land and sea frontiers from the 
advance of foreign Powers ? 

Fukien — " Which Western nations have paid most attention to 
education and what is the result ? State the lead- 
ing features of the military systems of Great Britain, 
Germany, Russia, and France. Which are the 
best colonizers ? How should tea and silk be 
properly cultivated? What is the government, 
industries and education of Switzerland which, 
though small, is independent of surrounding great 
powers ? 

Kwang-tung — (Canton) — "What should be our best coinage, 
gold, silver and copper like other Western coun- 
tries, or what ? How could the workhouse system 
be started throughout China ? How to fortify 
Kwang-tung province? How to get funds and 
professors for the new education? How to pro- 



Hopeful Signs 337 

mote Chinese international commerce, new indus- 
tries and savings-banks, versus the gambling houses 
of China ? 

Hunan — " What is the policy of Japan — only following other 
nations or what ? How to choose competent diplo- 
matic men ? Why does China feel its small na- 
tional debt so heavy, while England and France 
with far greater debts do not feel it ? 

Hupeh — ' ' State the educational systems of Sparta and Athens. 
What are the naval strategic points of Great Britain 
and which should be those of China ? Which na- 
tion has the best system of stamp duty ? State 
briefly the geological ages of the earth, and the 
bronze and iron ages. Trace the origin of Egyp- 
tian, Babylonian and Chinese writings." ' 

The result of these edicts is that the Chinese are buying 
Western books as never before. Examinations cannot be passed 
without them. The mission presses, though run to their full 
capacity, cannot keep up with the demand for their publica- 
tions. Dr. Timothy Richard of Shanghai reports that a quarter 
of a million dollars' worth of text-books were sold in that city 
in 1902, a single order received by the Presbyterian Press 
involving a bill of ;^328 for postage alone, as the buyer insisted 
that the books should be sent by mail. Mission schools that 
teach the English language are thronged with students, many 
of them from the higher classes, and every foreigner who is 
willing to teach Western learning finds his services eagerly 
sought. ;, 

China cannot be reformed by paper edicts even though they 
are written by an Emperor. Many reforms have been solemnly 
proclaimed in former years that accomplished little except to 
''save face" for the Government. We need not therefore 
imagine that the millennium is to come in China this year. 
But it is impossible to doubt that the reform decrees that have 

' Report of the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General 
Knowledge Among the Chinese, Shanghai, 1903. 



338 New Forces in Old China 

been issued since the Boxer uprising mean something more 
and are achieving something more than any other reform move- 
ments that China ever saw before. / Dr. Arthur H. Smith, who 
knows China and the Chinese as thoroughly as any other liv- 
ing man, writes : — 

" We behold the kernel of the reforms ordered by His Majesty, Kuang 
Hsum in 1898, and which led to his dethronement and imprisonment, sub- 
stantially adopted less than three years later by the Empress Dowager and 
her advisers. . . . The bare notation of the tenor of these far-reach- 
ing edicts gives to the Occidental reader but a vague notion of the tre- 
mendous intellectual revolution which they connote. Never before was 
there such an order from any government involving the reconstruction of 
the views of so many millions, by the study of the methods of government 
in other nations. . . . It is obvious to one who knows anything of the 
Chinese educational system of the past millennium that the introduction 
of the new methods will involve its radical reconstruction from top to bot- 
tom. Western geography, mathematics, science, history, and philosophy 
will be everywhere studied. The result cannot fail to be an expansion of 
the intellectual horizon of the Chinese race comparable to that which in 
Europe followed the Crusades. This will be a long process and a slow 
one, but it is a certain one. . . . All signs indicate that China is open 
as never before." f 

Undoubtedly the most powerful present factor in the policy 
of the Empire, and at the same time one of the best types of the 
educated Chinese, is Yuan Shih Kai, Viceroy of Chih-li and 
Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese army. He is not a Man- 
chu, like many of the high officials of China, but a pure Chi- 
nese like Li Hung Chang. Born in the Province of Honan, 
he quickly developed unusual abilities. After a brilliant record 
for a young man in his native land, he was sent to Korea as the 
representative of the Emperor of China and for nine years he 
was a conspicuous member of the diplomatic corps of the 
Korean capital. Returning to China in 1895, he was made 
commander of a division of the "New Imperial Army" — a 
post in which he manifested high military and administrative 



Hopeful Signs 339 

qualities. He organized and equipped his troops after the best 
foreign models and they speedily became so effective that, if 
they had been more numerous and if he had been given a free 
hand in using them in Peking, the history of 1900 might have 
been different. I have had occasion elsewhere ^ to give some 
account of the soldiers who escorted me through the interior. 
December, 1900, he was appointed Governor of the great prov- 
ince of Shantung. It was here that I met him, residing at Chi- 
nan-fu, the capital of the province. As soon as possible after 
my arrival, I sent my card and letters of introduction to the 
famous Governor, and he promptly replied that he would re- 
ceive me at one o'clock the following day. At the appointed 
hour, we called. With true courtesy, he met us at the entrance 
of the palace grounds and escorted us into his private room, 
which was neatly but very plainly furnished. He impressed 
me as a remarkable man. He was then forty-one years of age, 
of medium height, rather stout, with a strong face, a clear, 
frank eye, and a most engaging manner. He would be con- 
sidered a man of striking appearance anywhere. 

He was very cordial, and we had a long and interesting con- 
versation. He surprised me by his familiarity with America, 
especially as he spoke no English and had never been out of 
Asia. 

Partly at this interview and partly from other sources,'! 
heard more of his plan to start a daily newspaper, a Military 
Academy and a Literary College. His idea was to have in 
each institution two students from each of the 108 counties in 
the province, and thus train a body of men who would be able 
to carry "light and learning" into their respective districts. 
He appeared to feel that the only hope of averting such catas- 
trophes as the Boxer uprising lay in enlightening the people. 
In answer to a question as to the teaching of foreign languages, 
he said that English, French and German would be taught, but 
that German would probably be the most useful of the foreign 
> Chapter VII. 



340 New Forces in Old China 

tongues on account of the number of Germans in the eastern 
part of the province^^J 

The Governor had shown the breadth of his intelligence, and 
at the same time his appreciation of the high character of Prot- 
estant missionaries, by inviting one of them, the Rev. Dr. Wat- 
son M, Hayes, then President of the Presbyterian Mission Col- 
lege at Teng-chou, to become the President of the Literary 
College, I may anticipate so far as to state that Dr. Hayes 
accepted the invitation and began his work with every promise 
of large success. But unfortunately the rigid requirement of 
the Government that each student should worship the tablet of 
Confucius at stated intervals and the refusal of Yuan Shih Kai's 
successor to exempt Christian students made Dr. Hayes feel 
that he had no alternative but to resign. Whether Yuan Shih 
Kai, if he had remained in Shantung, would have been more 
lenient, it is, of course, impossible to say. I cherish the hope 
that he would have been, for he is a large-minded man and he 
discerns the signs of the times more clearly than many of his 
countrymen. But he is nevertheless a loyal disciple of Confu- 
cius and he might also have felt that questions of state policy 
were involved. It is suggestive, however, that in the spring of 
1898 Yuan Shih Kai had selected a Protestant minister, the 
Rev. Herbert E. House, D. D., (now of the Canton Christian 
College) as the tutor of his own son, Yuen Yen Tai. Dr. 
House says, by the way, that he found the youth "wonderfully 
pure in his thought, high in his ambition and intense in his 
passion for knowledge — the most patient and diligent student I 
ever knew." 

But to return to the interview with Yuan Shih Kai. The 
only other Chinese present was Tang Hsiao-chuan, a man of 
about thirty-five, who was in charge of the Provincial Foreign 
Office with the rank of Tao-tai. He had spent two years at 
Columbia University in New York City, spoke English fluently 
and impressed me as a fine man. Like the Governor, his man- 
ners were courtly and refined. He appeared to be a man of 



Hopeful Signs 341 

the diplomatic type and worthy of the promotion that he will 
doubtless receive. 

Early the next morning Captain Wang came on behalf of the 
Governor to return our visit. He was the translator of the 
Foreign Office and the tutor of one of the Governor's sons whom 
he was teaching English grammar, arithmetic, geography and 
history. I was interested to find that he had spent eight years 
at Philips Academy, Massachusetts, and that he spoke Enghsh 
with the grace of a cultured gentleman. 

The policy of Yuan Shih Kai during the Boxer troubles in- 
dicated the wisdom and the courage of the man. Disturbances 
had already begun when he assumed office. It was not far 
southwest of Chinan-fu that Brooks, the devoted English mis- 
sionary, was murdered by the Boxers. Yu Hsien was then 
Governor of Shantung but about that time was transferred to 
Shan-si, Yuan Shih Kai taking his place. If the notorious for- 
eign-hating Yu Hsien had remained in Shantung, probably he 
would have massacred the Shantung missionaries as he did 
those of Shan-si, where he invited them all to his yamen, and 
then began the butchery by killing three missionaries with his 
own hand. But Yuan Shih Kai foresaw the inevitable result 
of such barbarity and determined to restrain the Boxers and 
protect foreigners. He succeeded with the foreigners, not one 
being killed after he took control, and all being helped as far 
as possible to escape. As soon as the storm had passed, he 
officially wrote to the missionaries who had -taken refuge at the 
ports : — 

" Everything is now quiet. If you, reverend sirs, wish to return to the 
interior, I would beg you first give me word that I may most certainly 
order the military everywhere most carefully to protect and escort." 

This apparently pro-foreign policy brought upon the Gov- 
ernor, for a time, no small obloquy from the fiercely-fanatical 
conservatives who wanted to murder every foreigner within 
reach. Indeed the fury of the populace was so great that he 



342 New Forces in Old China 

was bitterly reviled as "a secondary devil," and his life was 
repeatedly threatened. But despite the clamour of the mob 
and the opposition of his associates in the government of the 
province, he maintained his position with iron inflexibility. 
Afterwards, however, the people as well as his official subordi- 
nates realized that he had saved them from the awful punish- 
ment that was inflicted upon the neighbouring province of 
Chih-li, and his power and prestige became greater than ever. 

During my visit in Ghining-chou, in the remote southwestern 
part of the province, an incident occurred which illustrated at 
once the power of Yuan Shih Kai's name and the heroic devo- 
tion of the missionaries. The day after our arrival, a friendly 
Chinese official brought word that Governor Yuan Shih Kai's 
mother had died the day before. Chinese custom in such cir- 
cumstances required him to resign his office and go into retire- 
ment for three years. Now Consul Fowler and all the foreign- 
ers whom I had met in the ports had declared that the safety 
of foreigners in Shantung depended on the Governor, that as 
long as he was in power white men were safe, but that his death 
or removal might bring another tumult of anti-foreign fury. 
On the strength of his known friendship, mission work was 
being resumed and the missionaries were returning to the in- 
terior. 

Now this man, on whose continuance in office so much de- 
pended, was apparently to retire and the future made all un- 
certain again. The Empress Dowager might give the post to a 
foreign -hater. An indifferent or even a weak pro-foreign Gov- 
ernor would be little better, for a strong man was needed to 
hold the population of Shantung in hand. The Chinese quickly 
take their cue from a high official and even a suspicion that he 
would not interfere might again loose the dogs of war. True, 
we had seen no signs of enmity, but appearances are deceptive 
in Asia. The smile of the mighty Governor meant a smile 
from every one. But what fires were smouldering beneath no 
one could know. Even in America, there are lawless men who 



Hopeful Signs 343 

would mob Chinese in a minute if they knew that the pohce 
were weak or indifferent. 

I did not fear for myself, for my plans compelled me to 
journey on to Ichou-fu anyway. But I did not like to leave 
Mr. Laughlin and Dr. Lyon, who had come with the inten- 
tion of remaining to reopen the mission work at Chining-chou. 
But with the true missionary spirit, they bravely decided to 
stay. A week later, they learned that in view of the importance 
of the province and his confidence in the great Governor, the 
Emperor had by a special dispensation shortened the period of 
official mourning from three years to one hundred days. During 
that time, the Fan-tai (treasurer) would be the nominal head 
of the province, though it was quietly understood that even 
then the Governor would be the " power behind the throne." 
But as this was not known when the decision to remain was 
made, the heroism of the missionaries was none the less 
striking. 

The attitude of Yuan Shih Kai is fairly indicated in the reg- 
ulations which he caused to be widely published after the Boxer 
outbreak. Some of these were as follows : — 

" In order to protect foreigners from violence and all mission property 
from burning and other destruction, all civil and military officials with all 
their subordinates (including literati, constables, village elders, et al.), 
must use their utmost endeavours to insure their protection. Persons re- 
fusing to submit to officials in these matters may be instantly executed 
without further reference to the Governor, and any one who rescues for- 
eigners from violence will be amply rewarded. 

" Any persons having been found guilty of destroying mission property 
or using violence to foreigners shall be severely dealt with according to 
the laws which refer to highway robbers, and in addition to this their 
goods and property shall be confiscated for the public use. 

" If injury to missionaries or destruction of property occurs in any dis- 
trict whatever, both civil and military officials of said district shall be de- 
graded and reported to the Throne. 

" The elders, constables, et al., of every village shall do their utmost to 
protect missionaries and their property. If in the future there occurs in 



344 



New Forces in Old China 



any village destruction of property or violence to a missionary, the head- 
men of such village shall be dealt writh according to the edict issued 
during the twenty-second year of the present Emperor. And, in addition 
to this they shall be required to present themselves to the yamen and 
make good all losses. The constables of such villages shall be severely 
dealt with and expelled from office forever. 

" All civil and military officials in whose districts none of these offenses 
named above occur in one year shall be rewarded with the third degree 
of merit, and three years of such freedom shall entitle the same officials to 
promotion. 

" Rewards will also be given to village elders and constables in whose 
district no disturbance occurs." 

These are rather remarkable words from a high Chinese 
official. Now their author occupies a position of even greater 
authority, for after the death of Li Hung Chang, he was ap- 
pointed to succeed him as Viceroy of Chih-li in November, 
1 90 1. Chih-li is not only one of the greatest provinces of the 
Empire with a population of 20,937,000, but it includes the 
imperial city of Peking and the ports of Tong-ku and Tien- 
tsin, the gateways to the capital. The Viceroy thus controls 
all avenues of approach to the Throne and is, in a sense, 
charged with the protection of the royal family. He has free 
access at all times to the Emperor and the Empress Dowager 
with whom he is a prime favourite. It was this position of high 
vantage which enabled Li Hung Chang to become well-nigh 
omnipotent in China. Yuan Shih Kai is not such a wily 
schemer as his distinguished predecessor and he is not likely to 
use his position for self-aggrandizement to the extent that Li 
Hung Chang did. But he is quite as able a man and more 
frank and reliable. He has enemies, as every public man has, 
especially in Asia. Some can never forgive him for his supposed 
part in the virtual dethronement of the Emperor several years 
ago. I It is alleged that the Emperor counted on the army of 
Yuan Shih Kai to support him in his reform policy, but that 
Yuan consulted with Jung Lu, who was then the Viceroy of 
Chih-li, and that that worthy promptly laid the whole matter 






.■<i8ii*k?' i 


Hi 






.V ':i,^^^ 




wtttt^BBSlfi 








be 3 



^ > 



Hopeful Signs 345 

before the Empress Dowager ; the result being that the young 
Emperor awoke one morning to find himself practically stripped 
of his imperial power.' Yuan has been freely charged with 
treachery in this coup d'etat. Others hold that he did not in- 
tend treachery but only consultation with his superior officer 
as to what ought to be done in a grave crisis which was in 
itself revolutionary in character. Yuan was far from being a 
reactionary, but he was wise enough to see that China could 
not be suddenly transformed, and he naturally hesitated to lend 
himself to an enterprise which he believed to be premature and 
to be destined to result in certain failure. The soundness of 
his judgment is now generally recognized, and the Emperor him- 
self is said to be almost as friendly towards him as the Em- 
press Dowager, who counts him one of her ablest supporters.^ 

In the present critical condition of far eastern politics, much 
depends upon the policy of Yuan Shih Kai. With exalted 
rank, the ear of the Empress Dowager and the command of the 
only real soldiers that China possesses, he can do more than 
any other man to influence the course of the Empire. Of 
course, one official, however powerful, cannot absolutely control 
national conditions. The forces at work both within and with- 
out the Empire are too vast and too complicated. Neverthe- 
less, the fact that such an able and far-seeing man as Yuan 
Shih Kai is now the most influential Viceroy in China, the Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Army, and the trusted adviser of the 
Empress Dowager may be fairly included among the hopeful 
signs for the future. 

Most significant of all is the development of missionary work 
since the Boxer outbreak. Not only have all the destroyed 
churches and chapels been rebuilt, but they are, as a rule, 
crowded with worshippers. In the Wei-hsien station field in 
Shantung, where every missionary was driven out and all the 
mission property destroyed, 437 Chinese were baptized last 

' Cf. Imperial Decree of Sept. 22, 1898, quoted in Pott, " The Out- 
break in China," pp. 55sq. 



346 New Forces in Old China 

year. In Peking, the large new Presbyterian church, though 
erected near that great cistern in which nearly xoo bodies were 
found after the siege, is filled at almost every service and the 
churches of other denominations are also largely attended. At 
a single service, Dr. Pentecost preached to 800 attentive Chi- 
nese young men. Even in Paoting-fu, where every remaining 
missionary and scores of Chinese Christians were killed, and 
where one might suppose that no Chinese would ever dare to 
confess Christ, even in bloodstained Paoting-fu, the missionaries 
are preaching daily to throngs of attentive Chinese in the city, 
while at the spacious new compounds outside the walls the 
schools and hospitals and churches are taxed to care for the 
hundreds who go to them. In the Canton field, long known 
for its anti-foreign feeling, 1,100 Chinese were baptized last 
year by the Presbyterians alone and the missionaries are im- 
portunately calling for reinforcements to enable them to meet 
the multiplied demands upon them. Even the province of 
Hunan, which a decade ago was almost as inhospitable to for- 
eigners as Thibet, now has half a hundred Protestant and Cath- 
olic missionaries developing a prosperous work. Bishop Graves, 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, returned recently from an 
episcopal visitation with this inspiring message : — 

" The condition and outlook of the Church's work in the province of 
Kiang-su are more encouraging than ever before. Hitherto we have had 
to persuade people to be taught. Now they come to us themselves, not 
one by one, but in numbers. . . . That there is a strong movement 
towards Christianity setting in is evident." ^ 

Not only has the old work been resumed with vigour but much 
new work has been opened. Within a year and a quarter after 
the relief of the Legations by the Allies, twenty-five new mis- 
sion stations had been opened and 373 new missionaries had 
entered China, and each succeeding year has seen considerable 
additions to the number. The Rev. Dr. George F. Pentecost, 
who visited China in 1903, writes — 

1 " The Spirit of Missions," July, 1904. 



Hopeful Signs 347 

"The outlook seems to me most encouraging. I find the more thought- 
ful missionaries entliusiastic in their forecast for the future. My own 
judgment is that the cause of missions, so far as foundation work and in- 
creased power for work, has been advanced at least twenty-five years by 
the massacres of 1900. I think the common people are thoroughly con- 
vinced that missions cannot be destroyed, and I am equally convinced 
that the authorities are also convinced that it is vain for them to rage and 
set themselves against Christianity. The one thing which an Asiatic 
recognizes is power and facts accomplished, and in the rebuilding of our 
missions and the awakening already begun and the reinforcement of the 
missions in men and material means they see and recognize power. Their 
own temples are falling into decay and ruin and our new buildings are 
rising in prominence and beauty. Their ignorant priesthood is sinking 
deeper and deeper into degradation, while our missionaries are eveiy- 
where known and recognized as men of ' light and learning.' . . , 
It seems to me from all I can learn that there is no fear of another anti- 
foreign outbreak." 

And these are but a few of the many illustrations that could 
be given. Everywhere, the doors are open and Chinese are 
now being baptized by Protestant missionaries at the rate of 
about 15,000 a year, while a far larger number are enrolled as 
inquirers or catechumens. The interdenominational conference 
of missionaries at Kuhng, August 7, 1903, declared : — 

" It is now a fact that there is not one of the more than nineteen hun- 
dred counties of China and Manchuria from which we are shut out, and 
before the hundredth year of our work begins, we can say that if the gospel 
is not preached to every creature in China, the reason must be sought out- 
side China. The opportunities of work are varied in their kind, vast in 
their extent. Never before have men crowded to hear the gospel as they 
are crowding now in the open air and indoors ; in our chapels and in our 
guest-rooms we have opportunities to preach Christ such as can scarcely 
be found outside China. Never before has there been such an eager de- 
sire for education as there is now ; our schools, both of elementary and of 
higher grades, are full, and everywhere applicants have to be refused. 
Never before has there been such a demand for Christian literature as 
there is now ; our tract societies and all engaged in supplying converts 
and inquirers with reading material are doing their utmost, but are not 
able to overtake the demand ; and the demand is certain to increase, for 



348 New Forces in Old China 

it comes from the largest number of people in the world reading one lan- 
guage. The medical work has from the first found an entrance into hearts 
that were closed against other forms of work. Its sphere of influence 
grows ever wider and is practically unhmited. Unique opportunities of 
service are afforded us by the large number of blind people, by lepers, 
and those suffering from incurable diseases ; by the deaf and dumb, the 
insane and other afflicted people. In China the poor are always with us, 
and whensoever we will we may do them good." 

Not least among the hopeful signs for the future is the new 
treaty between the United States and China which was signed 
at Shanghai, October 8, 1903, and unanimously ratified by the 
United States Senate December 18, 1903. It not only secured 
an "open door" in China for Americans, but, if the veteran 
"most favoured nation " clause is again pressed into service, a 
priceless benefit to the whole civilized world as well as to 
China herself. For this treaty abolished the exasperating 
"likin" (the inland tax heretofore exacted by local officials on 
goods in transit through their territories) ; confirmed the right 
of American citizens to trade, reside, travel, and own property 
in China ; extended to China the United States' copyright 
laws ; gained a promise from the Chinese Government to es- 
tablish a patent office in which the inventions of United States' 
citizens may be protected ; and made valuable regulations re- 
garding trade-marks, mining concessions, judicial tribunals for 
the hearing of complaints, diplomatic intercourse, and several 
other matters which, though sanctioned by custom, were often 
abridged or violated. 

The treaty, moreover, called for the opening of two additional 
treaty ports, one of which is at Teng-tien-fu, more generally 
known as Mukden, important not only as a city of 200,000 in- 
habitants but as the capital of Manchuria and with both rail 
and river connection with the Gulf of Pe-chi-li and the imperial 
province of Chih-li. The other is at An-tung,. which is im- 
portant because of its situation on the Yalu River opposite the 
Korean frontier. Of course, the Russia- Japan War has post- 



Hopeful Signs 349 

poned the opening of these ports, but the recognition of China's 
right to open them by treaty with the United States is none the 
less significant. 

Most important of all, the treaty removes, so far as any such 
enactment can remove, the last barrier to the extension of Chris- 
tianity throughout China. In Article XIII of the English treaty 
with China, September 5, 1902, Great Britain agreed to join 
in a commission to secure peaceable relationships between con- 
verts and non-converts in China. But the American treaty 
goes much farther, as the following extract (Article XIV) will 
show : — 

» The principles of the Christian religion, as professed by the Protestant 
and Roman Catholic Churches, are recognized as teaching men to do good 
and to do to others as they would have others do to them. Those who 
quietly profess and teach these doctrines shall not be harassed or perse- 
cuted on account of their faith. Any person, whether citizen of the 
United States or Chinese convert, who, according to these tenets, peace- 
ably teaches and practices the principles of Christianity shall in no case 
be interfered with or molested therefor. No restrictions shall be placed 
on Chinese joining Christian churches. Converts and non-converts, be- 
ing Chinese subjects, shall alike conform to the laws of China, and shall 
pay due respect to those in authority, living together in peace and amity ; 
and the fact of being converts shall not protect them from the consequences 
of any offense they may have committed before or may commit after their 
admission into the church, or exempt them from paying legal taxes levied 
on Chinese subjects generally, except taxes levied and contributions for 
the support of religious customs and practices contrary to their religion. 
Missionaries shall not interfere with the exercise by the native authorities 
of their jurisdiction over Chinese subjects ; nor shall the native authorities 
make any distinction between converts and non-converts, but shall admin- 
ister the laws without partiality, so that both classes can live together in 
peace. 

" Missionary societies of the United States shall be permitted to rent 
and to lease in perpetuity as the property of such societies, buildings or 
lands in all parts of the Empire for missionary purposes and, after the 
title-deeds have been found in order and duly stamped by the local author- 
ities, to erect such suitable buildings as may be required for carrying on 
their good work." 



3^0 New Forces in Old China 

This gives new prestige to American missionary effort and 
legally confirms the opening of the Empire from end to end to 
missionary residence, activity and toleration. All that France 
harshly obtained for Roman Catholic missions by the Ber- 
themy convention of 1865 and by the haughty ultimatum of M. 
Gerard at the close of the war with Japan, the United States 
has now peacefully secured with the apparent good-will of the 
Chinese Government. 



XXVIII 

THE PARAMOUNT DUTY OF CHRISTENDOM 

IT would be unwise to underestimate the gravity of the 
situation, or to assume that the most numerous and con- 
servative nation on the globe has been suddenly trans- 
formed from foreign haters to foreign lovers. The world may 
again have occasion to realize that the momentum of countless 
myriads is an awful force even against the resources of a 
higher civilization, as the Romans found to their consternation 
when the barbarian hordes overran the Empire. We do not 
know what disturbances may yet occur or what proportions 
they may assume. It may be that much blood will yet be 
shed. Inflamed passions will certainly be slow in subsiding. 
Men who are identified with the old era will not give up with- 
out a struggle. It took 300 years to bring England from pagan 
barbarism to Christian civilization, and China is vaster far 
and more conservative than England. The world moves faster 
now, and the change-producing forces of the present exceed 
those of former centuries as a modern steam hammer exceeds a 
wooden sledge. But China is ponderous, and a few decades 
are short for so gigantic a transformation. 

Meantime, much depends on the future conduct of foreigners. 
It is hard enough for the proud-spirited Chinese to see the 
aliens coming in greater numbers than ever and entrenching 
themselves more and more impregnably, and a continuance of 
the policy of greed and injustice will deepen an already deep 
resentment. The almost invincible prejudice against the for- 
eigner is a serious hindrance to the regeneration of China. 
" This fact emphasizes the need for using every means possible 
for the breaking down of such a prejudice. Every careless or 

351 



352 New Forces in Old China 

willful wound to Chinese susceptibilities, or unnecessary cross- 
ing of Chinese superstitions, retards our own work and in- 
creases the dead wall of opposition on the part of this people." ' 

The proper way to deal with the Chinese was illustrated by 
the Rev. J. Walter Lowrie of the Presbyterian Mission at 
Paoting-fu when, as a token of appreciation for his services to 
the city in connection with the retaliatory measures of the 
foreign troops shortly after the Boxer outbreak, the magistrate 
raised a special fund among wealthy Chinese, bought a fine 
tract of sixteen acres and presented it to the mission as a gift. 
The tract had been occupied for many years by several 
families of tenants who had built their own houses, but who 
were now to be evicted. Of course, Mr. Lowrie was not 
responsible for them. But he insisted that they should be 
dealt with fairly, and be paid a reasonable price for their homes 
and the improvements that they had made so that they could 
rent land and establish themselves elsewhere. In addition, he 
was at pains to find work for them until their new crops be- 
came available. Their affectionate greeting of Mr. Lowrie as 
we walked about the place clearly showed their gratification. 
There is not the slightest trouble with the Chinese when they 
are treated with ordinary decency as brother men. 

At any rate, in the name of that civilization and Christianity 
which we profess, as well of common humanity, let foreign 
nations abandon the methods of brutality and rapine. If we 
expect to convert the Chinese, we must exemplify the principles 
we teach. It is not true that the Chinese cannot understand 
justice and magnanimity. Even if it were true, it does not 
follow that we should be unjust and pitiless. Let us instruct 
them in the higher things. How are they ever to learn, if we 
do not teach them ? But as a matter of fact, the Chinese are 
as amenable to reason as any people in the world. Their 
temperament and inertia and long isolation from the remainder 
of mankind have made them slow to grasp a new idea. But 
» The Rev. Dr. J. C. Garritt, Hang-how. 



The Paramount Duty of Christendom 353 

they will get it if they are given reasonable time, and when 
they do once get it, they will hold it. Whether, therefore, 
further trouble occurs, depends in part upon the conduct of 
foreign nations. Justice and humanity in all dealings with the 
Chinese, while not perhaps wholly preventing outbreaks of 
hostility, will at least give less occasion for them. 

But however trying the period of transition may be, the issue is 
not for a moment doubtful. Progress invariably wins the victory 
over blind conservatism. The higher idea is sure to conquer 
the lower. With all their admixture of selfishness and 
violence, the fact remains that the forces operating on China 
to-day include the vital regenerative element for human 
society. It is futile to expect that China could ever regener- 
ate herself without outside aid. Spontaneous regeneration is 
an exploded theory in society as well as in biology. Life al- 
ways comes from without. 

The spirit of China's new system of education shows that 
there is imminent danger of the misuse of modern methods, 
even when they have been adopted. All her institutions are 
conducted on principles which virtually debar Christians 
either as students or professors. Infidelity, however, has free 
entrance as long as it conforms to the external forms imposed 
by the State. "Anti-conservative but anti-Christian," the 
educational movement has been characterized by Dr. W. M. 
Hayes of Teng-chou. Dr. W. A. P. Martin, so long Presi- 
dent of the Imperial Chinese University, declares that "if 
Christians at home only knew what a determined effort is being 
made to exclude Christian teachers and Christian text-books 
from Chinese Government schools, from the Imperial Uni- 
versity down, they would exert themselves to give a Christian 
education to the youth of China." A single mission insti- 
tution, like the Shangtung Protestant University, with its 
union of the best educational methods and the highest ideals 
of Christian character, will do more for the real enlightenment 
of China than a dozen provincial colleges where gambling, 



354 New Forces in Old China 

irreligion and opium smoking are freely tolerated and a failure 
to worship the tablet of Confucius is deemed the only 
cardinal sin. 

In view of all these things, the regeneration of China becomes 
a question of transcendent importance, a question demanding 
the broadest statesmanship and the supremest effort ; a question 
involving the future destinies of the race. " On account of its 
mass, its homogeneity, its high intellectual and moral qualities, 
its past history, its present and prospective relations to the 
whole world, the conversion of the Chinese people to Christi- 
anity is the most important aggressive enterprise now laid upon 
the Church of Christ." * It would be a calamity to the whole 
world if the dominant powers of Asia should continue to be 
heathen. But if they are not to be, immediate and herculean 
efforts must be made to regenerate them. Sir Robert Hart 
declares that the only hope of averting " the yellow peril " lies 
either in partition among the great Powers, which he regards as 
so difficult as to be impracticable, or in a miraculous spread of 
Christianity which will transform the Empire. Beyond 
question. Sir Robert Hart is right. It is too late now to avoid 
the issue. The impact of new forces is rousing this gigantic 
nation, and Western nations must either conquer or convert. 
Conquering is out of the question for reasons already given.' 
The only alternative is conversion. In these circumstances 
" the yellow peril becomes the golden opportunity of Christen- 
dom." ' 

And by conversion is not meant "civilization." Here is 
the fundamental error of the anonymous writer of " Letters of a 
Chinese Official." He evidently knows little or nothing of the 
missionary force or of the motives which control it. He writes 
as a man who has lived in a commercial and political atmos- 
phere, and who feels outraged, and with some justice, by the 

' Smith, " Rex Christus," p. 237. 

2 Chapter XXV. 

3 The Rev. Dr. Maltbie D. Babcock, 



The Paramount Duty of Christendom 355 

policy which European nations have adopted towards 
China. From this view-point, it was easy for the quick- 
witted author to satirize our defects and to laud the virtues, 
some of them unquestionably real, of his native land. But it 
does not follow that his indictment holds against the Christian 
people of the West, who reprobate as strongly as the author 
the duplicity and brutality of foreign nations in their dealings 
with China. The West has something more to offer China 
than a civilization. As a matter of fact, the best people of the 
West are not trying to give China a civilization at all, but a 
gospel. With whatever is good in Chinese civilization, they 
have no wish to interfere. It is true that some changes in 
society invariably follow the acceptance of Christianity, but 
these changes relate only to those things that are always and 
everywhere inherently wrong, irrespective of the civilization to 
which they appear to belong. The gospel transformed "the 
Five Points " in New York not because they were uncivilized 
but because they were evil. It will do in China only what it 
does in America — fight vice, cleanse foulness, dispel supersti- 
tion. Christianity is the only power which does this. It has 
transformed every people among whom it has had free course. 
It has purified society. It has promoted intelligence. It has 
elevated woman. It has fitted for wise and beneficent use of 
power. Lowell challenged sceptics to find 

" a place on this planet ten miles square, where a decent man can live in 
decency, comfort and security, supporting and educating his children, un- 
spoiled and unpolluted ; a place where age is reverenced, infancy re- 
spected, manhood respected, womanhood honoured, and human life held in 
due regard . . , where the Gospel of Christ has not gone and cleared 
the way, and laid the foundation and made decency and security possible." 

No degradation is beyond the reach of its regenerating power. 
Witness the New Hebrides, Metlakatla, the Fiji, Georgia and 
Friendly Islands. Even England, Germany and America 
themselves are in evidence. Christianity lifted them out of a 



356 New Forces in Old China 

barbarism and superstition as dense as any prevailing among 
the heathen nations of this age. It can effect like changes in 
China if it is given the opportunity. 

But it is said that the Chinese do not want to be converted. 
A distinguished General of the United States army declared, 
after his return from Peking in 1900 : — " I must say that I did 
not meet a single intelligent Chinaman who expressed a desire 
to embrace the Christian religion. The masses are against 
Christianity." * It is pleasant to know that it is so common 
for unconverted Americans to go to that army officer for 
spiritual guidance that the failure of the Chinese to do so dis- 
appointed him. Most men would hardly have expected a 
people who were smarting under defeat to open their hearts to 
a commander of the conquering army. But hundreds of other 
foreigners in China, myself included, can testify that they have 
heard intelligent Chinese express a desire to embrace the Chris- 
tian religion, and the fact that there are in China to-day over a 
hundred thousand Chinese, to say nothing of myriads of en- 
rolled catechumens, who have publicly confessed their faith in 
Christ and who have tenaciously adhered to it under sore per- 
secution is tangible evidence that some Chinese at least are dis- 
posed to accept Christianity. 

Do they want Him ? "It would please you," a missionary 
writes, " to see these poor people feeling after God, and their 
eagerness to learn more and more." It is not uncommon for 
converts to travel ten, fifteen and even twenty miles to attend 
service. The Sunday I was in Ichou-fu, I met a fine-looking 
young man, named Yao Chao Feng, who had walked sixteen 
miles to receive Christian baptism, and several other Chinese 
were present who had journeyed on foot from seventeen to 
thirty-three miles. In Paoting-fu, I heard of a mother and 
daughter who had painfully hobbled on bound feet thirteen 
miles that they might learn more about the new faith. In 
another city, 800 opium-smokers kneeled in a church and 
' The Christian Advocate, New York, June 11, 1903. 



The Paramount Duty of Christendom 357 

asked God to help them break the chains of that frightful 
habit. Surely He who puts His fatherly arms around the 
prodigal and kissed him was in that humble church and an- 
swered the prayer of those poor, sin-cursed men. It would 
be easy to fill a book with such instances. 

But suppose tlie Chinese do not want Christ. What of it ? 
Did they want the distinguished General ? On the contrary, he 
had to fight his way into Peking at the mouth of the cannon 
and the point of the bayonet, over the dead bodies of Chinese 
and through the ruins of Chinese towns. Do "the masses" 
desire Christ anywhere? Mr. Moody used to say that the 
people of the United States did not want Christ and would 
probably reject Him if He came to them as He came to the 
Jews of old. 

The question is not at all whether the Chinese or anybody 
else desire Christ, but whether they need Him, and a man's 
answer to that question largely depends upon his own relations 
to Christ. If we need Him, the Chinese do. If He has done 
anything for us, if He has brought any dignity and power and 
peace into our lives, the probabilities are that He can do as 
much for the Chinese. 

" Be assured that the Christ who cannot save a Chinaman in longitude 
II7O East is a Christ who cannot save you in longitude 3O West. The 
question about missions would not be so lightly put, nor the answer so 
lightly listened to, if men realized that what is at stake is not a mere 
scheme of us missionaries, but the validity of their own hope of eternal 
life. Yet I am bound to say that the questions put to me, on returning 
from the mission field, by professedly Christian people often shake my 
faith, not in missions, but in their Christian profession. What kind of 
grasp of the gospel have men got, who doubt whether it is to-day, under 
any skies, the power of God unto salvation ? " ' 

It passes comprehension that any one who has even a super- 
ficial knowledge of the real China can doubt for a moment its 
vital need of the gospel. The wretchedness of its life appalls an 
' Gibson, pp. 11, 12. 



358 New Forces in Old China 

American who goes back into the unmodified conditions of the 
interior or even into the old Chinese city of proud Shanghai. 
As I journeyed through those vast throngs, climbed many hill- 
tops and looked out upon the innumerable villages, which 
thickly dotted the plain as far as the eye could reach, as I saw 
the unrelieved pain and the crushing poverty and the abject 
fear of evil spirits, I felt that in China is seen in literal truth 
"The Man with the Hoe." 

« Bowed by the weight of centuries, he leans 
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground. 
The emptiness of ages in his face, 
And on his back the burden of the world. 

" What gulfs between him and the seraphim. 
Slave of the wheel of labour, what to him 
Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades ? 
What the long reaches of the peaks of song. 
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose ? 
Through this dread shape the suffering ages look; 
Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop," 

This is the need to which the churches of Europe and 
America are addressing themselves through the boards and 
societies of foreign missions. These boards are the channels 
through which the highest type of Christian civilization is com- 
municated to pagan peoples, the agencies which gather up all 
that is best and truest in our modern life and concentrate it 
upon the conditions of China. From this view-point, foreign 
missions is not only a question of religion, but a problem of 
statesmanship, and one of overshadowing magnitude. As 
such, it merits the sympathy and cooperation of every intelli- 
gent and broad-minded man, irrespective of his religious affilia- 
tions. Its spiritual aims are supreme and sufficient for every 
true disciple of Christ, but apart from them its social and educa- 
tional value and its relation to the welfare of the race justly 



The Paramount Duty of Christendom 359 

claim the interest and support of all. In this work the Church 
is saving both individuals and nations, and for time as well as 
for eternity. It holds no pessimistic views of the future. It 
denies that the development of the race has ended. It frankly 
concedes the existence of vice and superstition. But it be- 
lieves that the gospel of Jesus Christ is able to subdue that 
vice, and to dispel that superstition. So it founds schools and 
colleges for the education of the young ; establishes hospitals 
and dispensaries for the care of the sick and suffering ; operates 
printing-presses for the dissemination of the Bible and a Chris- 
tian literature ; maintains churches for the worship of the true 
God, and in and through all it preaches to lost men the trans- 
forming and uplifting gospel of Him who alone can "speak 
peace to the heathen." 

But some are saying that the Boxer outbreak has destroyed 
their confidence in the practicability of the effort to evangelize 
the Chinese. They are asking : '< Why should we send any 
more missionaries to China? " 

I reply: " Why send anymore merchants, anymore con- 
suls, any more oil, flour, cotton ? Shall we continue our com- 
mercial and political relations with China and discontinue our 
religious relations ; allow the lower influences to flow on un- 
checked, but withhold the spiritual forces which would purify 
trade and politics, which have made us what we are, and which 
alone can regenerate the millions of China?" 

Is disaster a reason for withdrawal ? When the American 
colonists found themselves involved in the horrors of the Revo- 
lution, did they say that it would have been better to re- 
main the subjects of Great Britain ? When, a generation ago, 
our land was drenched with the blood of the Civil War, did 
men think that they ought to have tolerated secession and 
slavery ? When the Maifie was blown up in Havana Harbour 
and Lawton was killed in Luzon, did we demand withdrawal 
from Cuba and the Philippines? When Liscum fell under the 
walls of Tien-tsin, did we insist that the attempt to relieve the 



360 New Forces in Old China 

Legations should be abandoned ? Or did not the American 
people, in every one of these instances, find in the very agonies 
of struggle and bloodshed a decisive reason for advance ? Did 
they not sternly resolve that there should be men, that there 
should be money, and that the war should be pressed to victory 
whatever the sacrifice that might be involved ? 

And shall the Church of God weakly, timidly yield because 
the very troubles have occurred which Christ Himself pre- 
dicted? He frankly said that there should "be wars and 
rumors of wars" ; that His disciples should "be hated of all 
men"; that He sent them "forth as sheep in the midst of 
wolves," and that the brother should "deliver up the brother 
to death and the father the child." But in that very discourse 
He also said : " He that taketh not his cross and followeth 
after me is not worthy of me." "Go, preach," He commanded. 
" Woe is me if I preach not," cried Paul. Hostile rulers and 
priests and mobs and the bitter Cross did not swerve Him a 
hairbreadth from His purpose ; nor did the rending of the early 
disciples in the arenas of Nero, the burning of a Huss and a 
Savonarola, the pyres of Smithfield, the dungeons of the 
Tolbooth and the thumb-screws of the Inquisition quench the 
zeal of His followers. 

And in the like manner, the ashes of mission buildings and 
the blood of devoted missionaries and the tumult of furious 
men have led multitudes at home to form a high and holy re- 
solve to send more missionaries, to give more money and to 
press the whole majestic enterprise with new faith and power 
until all China has been electrified by the vital spiritual force 
of a nobler faith. God summons Christendom to a forward 
movement in the land whose soil has been forever consecrated 
by the martyrdom of the beloved dead. Instead of retreating, 
"we should," in the immortal words of Lincoln at Gettysburg, 
" be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that 
from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that 
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion ; 



The Paramount Duty of Christendom 361 

that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died 
in vain." 

It may be said that this is a purely sentimental consideration. 
But so may love for country, for liberty, for wife and children, 
be called a sentiment. God forbid that the time should ever 
come when men will not be influenced by sentiment. The intui- 
tions of the heart are as apt to be correct as the dictates of the 
head. I candidly admit that as I stood amid the ruins of the 
mission buildings in China, as I faced the surviving Christians 
and remembered what they had suffered, the property they had 
lost and the dear ones they had seen murdered, — as I stood with 
bared head on the spot where devoted missionaries had per- 
ished, I was conscious of a deeper consecration to the task of 
uplifting China. And I am not willing to admit that such a 
dedication of the living to the continuance of the work of the 
dead is a mere sentiment. 

We are not wise above what is written when we declare that 
the eternal purpose of God comprehends China as well as 
Europe and America. He did not create those hundreds of 
millions of human beings simply to fertilize the soil in which 
their bodies will decay. He has not preserved China as a na- 
tion for nearly half a hundred centuries for nothing. Out of 
the apparent wreck, the new dispensation will come, is already 
coming. Frightened men thought that the fall of Rome meant 
the end of the world, but we can see that it only cleared the 
way for a better world. Pessimists feared that the violence and 
blood of the Crusades would ruin Europe, but instead they 
broke up the stagnation of the Middle Ages and made possible 
the rise of modern Europe. The faint-hearted said that the 
India mutiny of 1857 and the Syria massacres of i860 ended 
all hope of regenerating those countries, but in both they ushered 
in the most successful era of missions. 

So the barriers which have separated China from the rest of 
the world must, like the medieval wall of Tien-tsin, be cast down 
and over them a highway for all men be made. No one sup- 



362 New Forces in Old China 

posed that the process would be so sudden and violent. But 
in the Boxer uprising the hammer of God did in months what 
would otherwise have taken weary generations. Some were 
discouraged because the air was filled with the deafening tu- 
mult and the blinding dust and the flying debris. Many lost 
heart and wanted to sound a retreat because some of God's 
chosen ones were crushed in the awful rending. But the wiser 
and more far-seeing heard a new call to utilize the larger op- 
portunity which resulted. Up to this time we have been play- 
ing with foreign missions. It is now time for Christendom 
to understand that its great work in the twentieth century is to 
plan this movement on a scale gigantic in comparison with 
anything it has yet done, and to grapple intelligently, gen- 
erously and resolutely, with the stupendous task of Christianiz- 
ing China. 

But we are sometimes told that the churches should not be 
allowed to go on ; that one of the conditions of good feeling 
will be the exclusion of missionaries from China. On this 
point, I venture three suggestions : — 

First, — No administration that can ever be elected in the 
United States will thus interfere with the liberty of the 
churches. It will never say, in effect, that arms' manufacturing 
companies can send agents to Peking and distilleries send 
drummers to Shanghai, but that the Church of God cannot 
send devoted, intelligent men and women to found schools and 
hospitals and printing-presses and to preach the gospel of 
Jesus Christ. It will never say that American gamblers in 
Tien-tsin and American prostitutes in Hongkong shall be pro- 
tected by all the might of the American army and navy, but 
that the pure, high-minded missionary, who represents the 
noblest motives and ideals of our American life, shall be ex- 
patriated, a man without a country. 

This is, however, a problem for the nation, rather. than for 
the boards. The American missionary went to Asia before his 
Government did, and until recently he saw very little of the 



The Paramount Duty of Christendom 363 

American flag. European nations have protected their citizens, 
whether they were missionaries or traders. In the United 
States Senate Mr. Frye once reminded the nation that about 
twenty years ago England sent an army of 15,000 men down 
to the African coast, across 700 miles of burning sand, to bat- 
ter down iron gates and stone walls, reach down into an 
Abyssinian dungeon and lift out of it one British subject who 
had been unlawfully imprisoned. It cost England $25,000,000 
to do it, but it made a highway over this planet for every com- 
mon son of Britain, and the words, " I am an English citizen," 
more potent than the sceptre of a king. And because of that 
reputation American missionaries have more than once been 
saved by the intervention of British ministers and consuls who 
have not forgotten that "blood is thicker than water." Shall 
we vociferously curse England one day and the next supinely 
depend upon her representatives to help us out when our citi- 
zens are endangered ? 

This is not a question of " jingoism," whatever that may be. 
It is not a question of making unreasonable complaints to home 
governments. It is not a question of religion or of missions. 
It is a question of treaties, of citizenship, of national honour 
and of self-respect. Let the nation settle it from that view- 
point. The missionary asks no special privileges. He can 
stand it to go on as before, if the nation can stand it to have 
him. 

Second, — If China should ever make such a demand in 
repudiation of the treaties which she herself has expressly ac- 
knowledged to be valid, and if all the Powers should support 
her in that demand, does anybody doubt what the missionary 
would say ? We know at any rate what he has said in similar 
circumstances. When Peter and John were scourged and forbid- 
den to preach any more in the name of Jesus, friendless and pen- 
niless though they were, they ringingly answered : "Whether 
it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than 
unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things 



364 New Forces in Old China 

which we have seen and heard." When Martin Luther was 
arraigned before the most powerful tribunal in Europe, he de- 
clared : *' Here I stand. God help me. I can do no other." 
When the Russian Minister in Constantinople haughtily said to 
Dr. Hamlin, " My master, the Czar of all the Russias, will 
not let you put foot on that territory," — the intrepid mission- 
ary replied: "My Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, will never 
ask the Czar of all the Russias where He shall put His foot." 
Scores of missionaries have not hesitated to say to hostile 
authorities : "I did not receive my commission from any earthly 
potentate but from the King of Kings, and I shall, I must go 
on." 

Some will say that this is madness. So of old men said of 
Christ, "He hath a demon"; so they said of Paul, "Thou 
art beside thyself." If magnificent moral courage and 
unyielding devotion to duty are "madness," then the more the 
world has of it the better. 

The effort to minimize the significance of the missionary 
force in China will be made only by those who, destitute of any 
vital religious faith themselves, of course see no reason for 
communicating it to others, or by those who are strangely blind 
and deaf to the real issues of the age. In the words of Ben- 
jamin Kidd, "it is not improbable that, to a future observer, 
one of the most curious features of our time will appear to be 
the prevailing unconsciousness of the real nature of the issues 
in the midst of which we are living." 

" No more did the statesmen and the philosophers of Rome understand 
the character and issues of that greatest movement of all history, of which 
their literature takes so little notice. That the greatest religious change 
in the history of mankind should have taken place under the eyes of a 
brilliant galaxy of philosophers and historians who were profoundly con- 
scious of decomposition around them ; that all these writers should have 
utterly failed to predict the issue of the movement they were then observ- 
ing ; and that during the space of three centuries they should have treated 
as simply contemptible an agency which all men must now admit to have 



The Paramount Duty of Christendom 365 

been, for good or evil, the most powerful moral lever that has ever been 
applied to the aflairs of men, are facts well worthy of meditation in every 
period of religious transition." ' 

Does any sane man imagine that the Church could cease to 
be missionary and remain a Church ? It has been well said 
that the Christian nations might as well face the utter futility 
of any hypothesis based upon the supposition that they can 
remain away from the Orient. The occurrences of recent years 
have made changes in their relation to the world which they can 
no more recall than they can alter the course of a planet. It is 
idle for doctrinaires to tell us from the quiet comfort of home 
libraries, that we should " keep hands off." We can no more 
keep hands off than our country could keep hands off slavery 
in the South, no more than New York could keep hands off a 
borough infected with smallpox. The world has passed the 
point where one-third of its population can be allowed to breed 
miasma which the other two-thirds must breathe. Both for 
China's sake and for our own, we must continue this work. If 
this is true in the political and commercial realms, much more 
is it true in the religious. Chalmer's notable sermon on the 
"Expulsive Power of a New Affection" enunciates a perma- 
nent principle. When a man's soul is once thrilled with the 
conviction that he has found God, he must declare that sub- 
lime truth, 

" To doubt would be disloyalty, 
To falter would be sin." 

I confess to a feeling of impatience when I am told that all 
missionary plans for China must be contingent "upon the 
settlement of political negotiations," "the overthrow of the 
Empress Dowager and her reactionary advisers," "the reestab- 
lishment of the Emperor on his rightful throne," "the con- 
tinuance in power of Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai," "the mainte- 

• Lecky, " History of European Morals," Vol. I, p. 359. 



366 New Forces in Old China 

nance of a strong foreign military and naval force in China," 
"the thwarting of Russia's plans for supremacy," and several 
other events. 

All these things have been said and more. Is the Church 
then despairingly to resign her commission from Jesus Christ 
and humbly ask a new one from Csesar? Not so did the 
apostolic missionaries, and not so, I am persuaded, will their 
modern successors do. They cannot, indeed, be indifferent to 
the course of political events or to their bearing upon the 
missionary problem. But, on the other hand, they cannot 
make their obedience to Christ and their duty to their fellow men 
dependent upon political considerations. For Christian men 
to wait until China is pacified by the Powers, or " until she is 
enlightened by the dissemination of truer conceptions of the 
Western world," would be to abdicate their responsibility as 
the chief factor in bringing about a better state of affairs. Is 
the Church prepared to abandon the field to the diplomat, the 
soldier, the trader ? How soon is China likely to be pacified 
by them, judging from their past acts? The gospel is the 
primary need of China to-day, not the tertiary. The period 
of unrest is not the time for the messenger of Christ to hold 
his peace, but to declare with new zeal and fidelity his ministry 
of reconciliation. To leave the field to the politician, the 
soldier and the trader would be to dishonour Christ, to fail to 
utilize an unprecedented opportunity, to abandon the Chinese 
Christians in their hour of special need and to prejudice mis- 
sionary influence at home and abroad for a generation. 

But the numbers at work are painfully inadequate. To say 
that there are 2,950 Protestant foreign missionaries in China is 
apt to give a distorted idea of the real situation unless one 
remembers the immensity of the population. A station is con- 
sidered well-manned when it has four families and a couple 
of single women. But what are they among those swarming 
myriads? The proportion of Protestant missionaries to the 
population, which is commonly quoted, needs revision. There 



The Paramount Duty of Christendom 367 

is one to about every 144,000 souls. But that, too, requires 
modification, for it counts the sick, the aged, recruits who are 
learning the language, wives whose time is absorbed by house- 
hold cares, and those who are absent on furloughs, the last 
class alone being often about ten per cent, of the total enroll- 
ment. The actual working force, therefore, is far smaller than 
the statistics suggest. 

Of China as a whole, it is said that "some of the mission- 
aries and some of the converts are to be found in every one of 
the provinces, both of China and Manchuria. But in the 
1,900 odd counties into which the provinces are divided, each 
with one important town and a large part of them with more 
than one, there are but some 400 stations. That is to say, at 
least four-fifths of the counties of China are almost entirely 
unprovided with the means of hearing the gospel." ' Of 1,776 
walled cities in the Empire, less than 300 are occupied by mis- 
sionaries. There are literally tens of thousands of communities 
that have not yet been touched by the gospel. Plainly, the 
missionary force must be largely augmented if the work is to 
be adequately done. The home churches have gone too far to 
stop without going farther. " Those who undertake to carry 
on mission work among great peoples undertake great responsi- 
bilities. We have no right to penetrate these nations with a 
revolutionary gospel of enormous power, unless we are prepared 
to make every sacrifice and every effort for the proper care and 
the wise training of the organization of the Christian com- 
munity itself which, while it must become increasingly a source 
of revolutionary thought and movement, is also the only body 
that can by the help and grace of God give these far-reaching 
movements a healthy direction and lead them to safe and happy 
issues." * 

Grant that the work of evangelization must be chiefly done 
by Chinese preachers ; there is still much for the missionary to 

* " China's Call for a Three Years' Enterprise," 1903. 
' Gibson, p. 277. 



368 New Forces in Old China 

do. Allowing for those who, on account of illness, furlough or 
other duties, are temporarily non-effective, 10,000 missionaries 
for China would not give a working average of one for every 
50,000 of the population. In these circumstances, the union 
conference of missionaries at Kuling, August 7, 1903, was 
surely within reasonable bounds when, in urging the Protestant 
churches to celebrate in 1907 the one hundredth anniversary 
of the sending forth of Robert Morrison, it declared : — 

" . . . In view of the vastness of the field that lies open before us, 
and of the immense opportunities for good which China offers the Chris- 
tian Church — opportunities so many of which have been quite recently 
opened to us and which were won by the blood of the martyrs of 1900 — 
we appeal to the boards and committees of our respective societies, and in- 
dividually to all our brethren and sisters in the home churches, to say if we 
are unreasonable in asking that the last object of the Three Years' 
Enterprise be to double the number of missionaries now working in 
China." 

The time has come to ** attempt great things for God, ex- 
pect great things from God." When in 1806, those five 
students in Williamstown, Massachusetts, held that immortal 
conference in the lee of a haystack, talked of the mighty task of 
world evangelization and wondered whether it could be ac- 
complished, it was given to Samuel J. Mills to cry out : " We 
can if we will ! " And the little company took up the cry and 
literally shouted it to the heavens: "We can if we will ! " 
"A growing church among a strong people burdened by a 
decadent Empire — the spirit of life working against the forces 
of death and decay in the one great Pagan Empire which the 
wrecks of millenniums have left on the earth — surely there is a 
call to service that might fire the spirit of the dullest of us." ^ 
The obstacles are indeed formidable, but he who can look be- 
neath the eddying flotsam and jetsam of the surface to the 

' Gibson, p. 331. 



The Paramount Duty of Christendom 369 

mighty undercurrents which are sweeping majestically onward 
can exclaim with Gladstone : — 

" Time is on our side. The great social forces which move onward in 
their might and majesty, and which the tumults of these strifes do not for 
a moment impede or disturb — those forces are marshalled in our support. 
And the banner which we now carry in the fight, though perhaps at some 
moment of the struggle it may droop over our sinking hearts, yet will 
float again in the eye of heaven and will be borne, perhaps not to an easy, 
but to a certain and to a not distant victory." ' 

In a famous art gallery, there is a famous painting called 
"Anno Domini." It represents an Egyptian temple, from 
whose spacious courts a brilliant procession of soldiers, states- 
men, philosophers, artists, musicians and priests is advancing 
in triumphal march, bearing a huge idol, the challenge and the 
boast of heathenism. Across the pathway of the procession is 
an ass, whose bridle is held by a reverent looking man and 
upon whose back is a fair young mother with her infant child. 
It is Jesus, entering Egypt in flight from the wrath of Herod, 
and thus crossing the path of aggressive heathenism. Then 
the clock strikes and the Christian era begins. 

It is a noble parable. Its fulfillment has been long delayed 
till the Child has become a Man, crucified, risen, crowned. 
But now in majesty and power, He stands across the pathway 
of advancing heathenism in China. There may be confusion 
and tumult for a time. The heathen may rage, " and the 
rulers take counsel together against the Lord." But the idol 
shall be broken "with a rod of iron," and the King upon his 
holy hill shall have " the heathen for ' his ' inheritance and the 
uttermost parts of the earth for ' his ' possession." 

For a consummation so majestic in its character and so vital 
to the welfare, not only of China but of the whole human race 
we may well make our own the organ-voiced invocation of 
Milton : — 

> Speech on the Reform Bill. 



3/0 New Forces in Old China 

" Come, O Thou that hast the seven stars in Thy right hand, 
appoint Thy chosen priests according to their order and courses 
of old, to minister before Thee, and duly to dress and pour out 
the consecrated oil into Thy holy and ever burning lamps. 
Thou hast sent out the spirit of prayer upon Thy servants over 
all the earth to this effect, and stored up their voices as the 
sound of many waters about Thy throne. . . . O perfect 
and accomplish Thy glorious acts ; for men may leave their 
works unfinished, but Thou art a God ; Thy nature is perfec- 
tion. . . . The times and seasons pass along under Thy 
feet, to go and come at Thy bidding; and as Thou didst 
dignify our fathers' days with many revelations, above all their 
foregoing ages since Thou tookest the flesh, so Thou canst 
vouchsafe to us, though unworthy, as large a portion of Thy 
Spirit as Thou pleasest ; for who shall prejudice Thy all-gov- 
erning will? Seeing the power of Thy grace is not passed 
away with the primitive times, as fond and faithless men 
imagine, but Thy kingdom is now at hand, and Thou standing 
at the door, come forth out of Thy royal chambers, O Prince 
of all the kings of the earth ; put on the visible robes of Thy 
imperial majesty, take up that unlimited sceptre which Thy Al- 
mighty Father hath bequeathed Thee ; for now the voice of 
Thy bride calls Thee, and all creatures sigh to be renewed." ' 

1 Milton, « Prose Works." 




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Index 



Abraham, 39 
Abyssinia, 363 
Academy, Military, 339 
Achievements of Chinese, 39sq. 
Africa, 16, 19, 102, 106, 107, 108, 

126, 128, 175, 314 
Agnew, Rev. Dr., B. L., 2S8 
Agnosticism, 73 
Agriculture, 136; implements of, 

129 
Alaric, 315 
Alaska, 17 

Alexander the Great, 16 
Allied armies, 1900, 207sq., 273, 

320 ch. 
Altai Mountains, Little, 104 
America, 19, 20, 30, 355 
American-China Development Co., 

134 

American Board, 20isq., 290, 292, 

293. 295' 296, 299, 300 
American Christians, 28isq. 
American manufacturers, 105, 106, 

"4. 133 
American mobs, 43 
American troops, 207, 327, 328, 

329 
Americans in China, 25, 26, 27, 

87, 88, 114, 115, 124-126, 131, 

134, I54sq-, 182, 305, 348 
Amoy, 150, 221 
Amur, valley of, 153 
Anatolian railway, 105 
Ancestral worship, 72sq., 138, 340 
Andrews, Bishop, 41 
Angell, I'res. James B., 264 
Anglo-Chinese railway syndicate, 

132 
Anglo-Italian syndicate, 132 
Anglo-Saxon, 35 
An-huei, 336 
Annam, 152 



" Anno Domini," painting, 369 

Anti-foreign sentiment, I36sq. 

An-tung, 348 

Arabia, 16, 107 

Arch, 39 

Area of China, 17, 36 

Armies, Allied, 207sq., 273, 320 ch. 

Army, Chinese, 92sq., 305, 306, 

316, 333' 33S, 339, 345 
Arrow War, 151 
" As a Chinaman Saw Us," 25 
Asia, 15, 16, 105, 106, 107, III; 

changes in, Ilisq. ; religions of, 

119 
Assyria, 16 

Astronomical observatory, 325 
Astronomy, 39 
Attila, 315 
Attitude towards foreigners, 231, 

258-267, 270, 320 ch., 32S, 330, 

335sq-, 341,342, 344, 351 
Australia, 106, 107, 108, 174 
Austria, 41, 172, 212, 316 
Awakening of China, 7 

Babcock, Rev. Dr. Maltbie, 276 

Baby house, 60 

Babylon, 16 

Bagnall, Mr. Benjamin, 201, 206 

Baillard, General, 208 

Ballard, Walter J., 106 

Bangkok, 42, 105, 107 

Banks, 40 

Baptists, 62, 63, 296-299, 300 

Barrett, Hon. John, 237 

Batavia, 42 

Bayard, Hon. Thos. F., 159 

Beirut, 105 

Belgians International Eastern Co., 

^33 

Belgium, 133, 171, 175, 212 
Bells, 39 



37^ 



372 



Index 



Benares, 32 

Benevolence, 72 

Beresford, Lord Charles, 306 

Bergen, Rev. Dr. Paul D., 67, 
23isq., 236 

Berlin Conference, 102, 175 

Bible translation, 220 

Bicycles, 1 14 

Bishop, Mrs. Isabella Bird, 27 

Black Sea, 16 

Blind asylum, 223 

Boards, mission, 243, 247, 249, 
28isq., 290, 349, 358 

Boats, 23 

Bogue forts, 149, 154 

Boma, 107 

Books on China, 195, 196, 224 

Boston, 20, 157 

Boughton, Miss Emma, 60 

Bougler, D. C, 7 

Boxers and Boxer Uprising, 52, 59, 
60, 62, 63, 98, 131, 187, 193 ch., 
202sq., 240, 249 ch., 259, 261, 
265, 273sq., 330, 331, 339, 341, 

345. 359, 362 
Brazil, 172 

Brewer, Hon. David J,, 163 
Brice, Senator Calvin S., 134 
Brinkley, Capt. Frank, 125, 322 
British-Chinese corporation, 132 
British in China, 130, 131, 134, 

135, 140, 208 
British Government, 234 
British Museum, 40 
Brockman, Mr. F. S., 287, 289 
Brooke, Rev. Dr. Stopford, 33 
Buddha, 15 
Buddhism, 29, 66, 74sq.,.258, 259, 

271 
Bulgaria, 21 
Burial, 138 

Burlingame, Hon. Anson, 155, 160 
Burma, 105, 107, 151 
Byron, 49 

Cables, 108, 109 
Calcutta, 103 
Cahfornia, 22, io2, 157 
Cambodia, 152 
Canada, 19 



Canals, 39, 68 

Canton, 20, 22-24, 32,41, 132, 134, 

138, I46sq., 152, 220, 221, 337, 

346 
Canton-Hankow R. R., 134 
Cape to Cairo R, R., 104, 106 
Cape Town, 104 
Carts, 53-55, 84 
Cash, Chinese, 61, III, I39 
Cassini Convention, 153 
Cemeteries, 70, 74 
Chairs, 53, 54 
Chaldea, 15, 16 

Chalfant, Rev. Frank, 53, 59, 60 
Chalmers, Rev. Dr. James, 126 
Chang Chih-tung, 189, 195, 335 
Chang Pei-hsi, 335 
Chao Chu, 43 
Charity, 33, 34 
Chedor-laomer, 16 
Chefoo, 3, 13, 30, 48, 49, 138, 177, 

186, 187, 225-227 
Cheh-kiang, 21 
Chester, Rev. Dr. S, H., 75 
Chieng-mai, 107 
Chih-li, 21, 196, 293, 308, 342, 

344, 348 
Children, Chinese, 19, 23, 38, 72, 

73 
China, 107 ; achievements, 39sq. ; 
area, 17, 36; army, 316, 345; 
attitude towards foreigners, 35 sq. 
ch., 69, 145, 147, 148, 231, 258, 
267, 270, 320, 328, 330, 335sq., 
341-344, _ 351 ; awakening, 7; 
changes in, 112; character of 
people, 25sq. ch., 35sq. ch., 47 ; 
civilization, 23, 25sq. ch., 35sq. 
ch., no, 112, 116, 119, 315; 
climate, 18 ; colonies, 42, 44, 
141, 154 ch.; conservatism, 35, 
19X ; customs, 25sq., 73, 85sq. ; 
defects, 27sq. ; fertility, 136; for- 
eign trade, I2isq. ; future, 305sq., 
33'' 332 , 333 ch. ; Government, 
28, 29, 41, 47, 48, 130-145, 333, 
338; history, 39; language, 8, 
25; learning, 40; life in, 358; 
opening, I02 ; partition, 307sq. ; 
peculiarities, 25sq. ; people of. 



Index 



373 



25Ch., 38, 97, 98, 157, 228sq., 

314, 352. 353; populalion, 
lS-22, 36, 135, 315; prejudices, 
317; religion, 31, 137, 138,315 ; 
resources, iS, 315; scenery, 22, 
80; scholarship, 40; society, 40, 
41 ! soldiers, 92sq., 222 ; treaties 
with, I7isq. ; vices, 2754., 46 

China Inland Mission, 201, 239, 
300 

China and Japan, 309, 314 

China-Japan War, 179, 180, 189, 
305, 350 

Chinan-fu, 45, 53, 63, 132,296,339 

•' China's Only Hope," 189, 190 

Chinese abroad, 42, 141 

Chinese in the United States, 41, 

44, iS4sq., 331, 343 
Ching-chou-fu, 30, 6isq., 277, 296 
Ching-ting, 133 

Chining-chou, 47, 67, 68, 261, 343 
Chin-kiang, 132 
Chou-ping, 63 
Christendom, duty of, 351 
Christians, American and European, 

286sq. 
Christians, Chinese, 63, 116, 117, 

167, 198, 220, 222sq., 228, 

268 ch., 280 ch., 294, 346, 347, 

349, 356, 361 
Christianity in China, 29, 30, 31, 
i67sq., 2l9sq., 222sq. Part IV., 
259, 264, 268 ch., 287, 292, 349, 

355 
Christianity vs. civilization, I26sq. 
Chung Hui Wang, 43 
Chung-wan-tao, 182 
Church, Chinese, 268 ch., 280 ch., 

294, 368 
Church, Greek, 311, 312 
Cities of China, 20, 21, 47, 124, 

292, 367 
Civilization, Chinese, 23, 25ch., 

35ch., no, 112, 116, 119, 315; 

Western, 26, 27, 31, 39, 40, 43, 

88, 328, 351, 354 
Civilization vs. Christianity, I26sq. 
Civil power, 236 ch. 
Civil War, American, 359 
Classics, Chinese, 25, 40 



Classics, hall of, 71 

Climate of China, 18, 84 

Clocks, 113 

Coal, 18, 47, 130, 132, 136 

CochinChina, 152 

Coffee, 146 

Coffins, 25, 38, 59, 138 

Colleges, 296, 339, 340 

Colonies, European, 145 ch., 174 ch. 

Colonization, Chinese, 42, 44, 141, 
154 ch. 

Colquhoun, A. R., 44 

Columbia University, 340 

Comity, 290 

Commerce, 40, loi, 109, 117, 121, 
126, 136, 305 

Commercial Pacific Cable, 108, 109 

Compass, 39 

Conceit, 42 

Concessions, 348 

Concubinage, 72 

Conferences, Ruling, 347 ; Shang- 
hai, 295 

Confucius and Confucianism, 15, 
30-32, 38, 47, 65 ch., 328, 334, 
340 

Conger, Hon. Edwin H., 207, 265, 

329 

Congo, 104, 107 ; International As- 
sociation of, 102 ; State, 173 

Conservatism of Chinese, 35, 191 

Consuls, 154, 236, 245, 262, 263, 316 

Conveyances, 53 

Coolies, 23, 41, 50 

Cooper, Rev. Wm., 202, 206 

Cooperation, mission, 290, 294sq. 

Copyright laws, 348 

Corbett, Rev. Dr. Hunter, 225, 226 

Corruption, official, 27, 28, 32 

Corvino, John de, 219 

Cost of living, iiisq., 280 

Cotton, 122 

Counties, 367 

Coup d'etat, 338, 344, 345 

Courses, ten righteous, 72 

Courts, 28, 228, 234, 348 

Crickets, 23 

Cruelty, 29, 30 

Crusades, 194, 361 

Cuba, 312 



374 



Index 



Customs, 25sq., 73, 85sq. ; mari- 
time, 191, 317 
Czar of Russia, 18 

Dalai Lama, 19 

Dalny, 131, i8osq. 

Damascus, 105 

Danube, 16 

Darwin, Charles, 129 

Davis, Hon. J. C. B., 156, 238 

Deaf and Dumb Asylum, 223, 225 

Deceit, 28 

Decrees, imperial, 335-338 

Defects of Chinese, 27sq. 

Degrees, 335sq. 

Denby, Hon. Charles, 264, 290 

Denmark, 171 

Dewey, Admiral, 306 

Dickens, Charles, 34 

Diedrich, Admiral, 176 

Diffusion Society, 189 

Diplomacy, 145, i65sq., 236 ch., 

246, 262, 348 
Discoveries of Chinese, 39sq. 
Dishonesty, 28 
Donkeys, 53, 84 
Drunkenness, 46 
Dutch in China, 146, 147, 175 
Dye-shops, 23 

East India Company, 102, 147, 

220 
Economic revolution, i i i s q., 

280 ch. 
Edicts, imperial, 335-338; reform, 

190, 191 ; Yuan Shih Kai's, 343, 

344 
Education, 190, 191, 335-338, 339, 

347. 353 
Egypt, 16, 107 
Electricity, 103, I07sq., 114 
Elephants, 107 
Elgin, Lord, 166 
Eliot, George, 33 
Elterich, Rev. W. O., 48 
Embezzlers, 28 
Embroidery, 23-61 
Emperor, 72, 80, 113, 190, 197, 

198, 317, 324, 325. 326, 338, 343, 

344, 345. 365 



Emperor, German, 318 

Empress, Dowager, 188, 193, 324, 

338, 344, 345, 365 

England and the English, 16, 17, 
21, 41, 117, 128, I46sq., 166, 
171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 181, 182, 
212, 239, 307, 308, 309,349,351, 
355, 363; soldiers of, 321-324 

Essays, examination, 190, 335sq. 

Etiquette, Chinese, 37 

Euphrates, 16 

Europe, 17, 30, 39, 106, 107, 108, 
307, 308, 309, 318 

Europeans, 26, 87, 88, 124, 126, 
145 ch. 

" Ever Victorious Army," 222 

Examinations, 190, 212, 33Ssq. ; 
Grounds, 325 

Exclusion laws, 158, 184 

Exposition, St. Louis, 1 60 

Extra-territoriality, 150, 184-186 

Face, 37, 38 

Fan-tai, 48 

Fares, railway, 140, 141 

Faris, Rev. W. W., 81 

Farmers, 40 ; farms, 18, 21, 46 

Favier, Bishop, 199 

Fay Chi Ho, 161, 322 

Feasts, 61, 69, 81, 85sq., 95 

Feathers, 23 

Fei-hsien, 96 

Fenn, Rev. Dr. C. H., 28, 3 1 

Field, Rev. Dr. Henry M., 247 

Firearms, 39 

Fitch, Rev. J. A., 60 

"Five Points," 355 

Five-story Pagoda, 23, 24 

Floods, 191, 192 

Flour, 122 

Foochow, 150, 182, 221 

Food, 85 sq. 

Fong-king, 153 

Forbidden City, 197 

Foreigners in China, 23, 26, 27, 
35sq., 69, 97, 124-126, 142, 
145 ch., 151, 156, 162, l67sq., 
I75sq., 184 ch., 264, 320 ch., 

327,328,351 
Formosa, 146, 312 



Index 



375 



Foster, Hon. John W., 102, 166, 

265 
Fowler, Consul John, 52, 91, 329, 

342 
France, 16, 21, 117, 171, 172, 173, 

174, 175, 180, 181, 182, 186, 

212, 236, 251, 350 
Franco-Chinese Convention, 135 
Freight, railway, 141 
French in China, 44, 134, 135, 140, 

151, 152, 153, 20S, 307, 308, 

309. 334; soldiers, 321, 323, 

324 
Fruit in China, 226 
Frye, Senator, 363 
Fuel, 47 
Fukien, 21, 336 
Funerals, 74 
Fung-shuy, 75sq. 
Fusan, 105 
Future of China, 331, 332, 333 ch. 

Gambling, 28, 124 

Gardens, 46 

Gaselee, General, 208 

Gelatine, 39 

Genseric, 315 

Georgia, 21 

Gerard, M., 350 

Germans, 40, 44, 54, 58, 60, 82, 

93. 97. 132, 139. 140, 321, 323. 

331. 334, 339, 340 
Germany, 16, 41, 117, 118, 172, 

173, 174, 175, 176, 179, 180, 

182, 208, 212, 307, 308, 309, 

316,35s 
Germany, Emperor of, 318 
Gibson, Rev. Dr. J. Campbell, 28, 

71,75, 269, 270 
Gin, cotton, 103 
Gladstone, Wm. E., 369 
Gleaning, 46 
Glue, 39 
Goatskins, 123 
Golden Rule, 184 
Goodnow, Consul-General, 123, 

269 
Gordon, Charles George, 222, 306 
Gorst, Harold E., 124 
Goths, 315 



Gould, Miss Annie A., 201, 206 
Government, 48, 236 ch. 
Government, Chinese, 28, 29, 41, 

130, 145, 231, 333. 334, 338; 

Church, 300; constitutional, 120 
Governments, foreign, 362sq. 
Governors, 48 
Governor of Canton, I47sq. 
Gracey, Rev. Ur. J, T., 20 
Grain, 46 
Grand Canal, 68 
Grant, General, 41 
Graves, Bishop, 31, 138, 1 39, 346 
Gray, Willis E., 134 
Great Bell Temple, 39 
Great Britain, see England 
Greek Church, 169, 183, 311, 312 
Griffis, Rev. Dr. William Elliott, 

32 
Guatama, 15 
Gunpowder, 39 

Hamlin, Rev. Dr. Cyrus, 364 

Hai-fong, 135 

Haight, Hon. H. H., 157 

Hainan, 22 

Hall of Classics, 71 

Hangchow, 132 

Hankow, 133, 134 

Harrison, Hon. Benjamin, 266 

Hart, Sir Robert, 193, 230, 243, 

316, 317, 332, 334, 354. 
Harte, Bret, 43, 44 
Harvest, 46 
Hawaiians, 127 
Hawes, Miss Charlotte, 60 
Hay, Hon. John, 183, 188, 238, 

330 
Hayes, Rev. Dr. W. M., 340, 353 
Haystack prayer-meeting, 368 
Health precautions, 90 
Heard, Hon. Augustin, 309, 310 
Hedin, Sven, 18, 19, 40 
Hill, James J., 109 
History of China, 39 
Hodge, Dr. C. V. A., 201-21 1 
Holcombe, Hon. Chester, 43, 160, 

162, 187, 308, 314, 315 
Holland, 171 
Honan, 21, 133, 335 



37^ 



Index 



Hongkong, 22, 122, 150, I5isq. 

Hong merchants, 148, 149 

Horrors, Temple of, 74 

Hospitality, 95, 96, 98 

Hospitals, 82, 223, 265 

Hostility to foreigners, 35sq. ch. 

House, Rev, Herbert E., 340 

House-boats, 23 

Houses, 31, 39, 47, 61, 62 

Hsiang-tan-hsien, 20 

Hsi-an-fu, 219 

Hsi-an-tai, 59 

Hsiens, 367 

Hunan, 22, 337 

Hungary, 21 

Hung-Wu, Emperor, 40 

Huns, 315 

Hunter, Rev. Dr. S. A., 261 

Hupeh, 21, 337 

ICHOU-FU, 132, 229, 356 

Illinois, 21, 22 
Immorality, 28, 29, 124 
Imperial Railway, 131 
Indemnity, 59, 69, 155, 159, 211, 

212, 330, 334 
India, 28, 29, 102, 105, 107, 114, 

117, 119, 307, 313, 314, 361; 

Churches in, 299 
Indiana, 21, 22 
Indus, 16 
Inns, 69-88, 95 
Intemperance, 124, 126, 128 
International Eastern Co., 133 
Inventions, 112 
Inventions of Chinese, 39sq. 
Iron, 18, 136 
Irrawaddy, 105 
Italy, 172-174. 175, 212; soldiers 

oi, 325 

Japan, 17, 36, loi, 105, 109, iii, 
114, 167, 172, 173, 179, 182, 194, 
212, 307, 308, 309, 314, 337, 350; 
Churches in, 299, 301 

yapan Weekly Mail, 125, 322 

Japanese, 29, 44, 117, 118, 119, 
305. 306, 317, 319, 320, 321,328, 
329- 

Jenghiz Khan, 318 



Jerusalem, 105 

Jewelry, 23 

Jews, 4isq., 217, 218 

Johnson, Dr. Chas. F., 68, 91, 229 

Jones, Mr. A. G., 62 

Junks, 130 

Kai-ping, 130 

Kameruns, 108 

Kansas, 22 

Kan-su, 22, 66 

Kao-liang, 46 

Kaomi, 57 

Kassai, 107 

Khartoum, 104 

Kai-feng-fu, 133, 217 

Kentucky, 21, 22 

Kerosene, 113 

Kiang-si, 21, 336 

Kiang-su, 22, 336 

Kiao-chou, 53, 57, 97 ; Bay of, 176 

Kidd, Benjamin, 33, 364 

Kien Lung, Emperor, 80 

King of Siam, 114, 119 

Kitchener, Lord, 104 

Korea, xo2, 105, 107, 108, 1 16, 
117, 119, 132, 172, 284, 312, 
313, 338 ; Churches in, 299 

Kowloon, 134, 135, 151 

Kuang Hsii, 317 

Kuang Hsum, 338 

Ku-chou, 82 

Ku-fu, 69sq. 

Kuling, 347, 368 

Kung Hsiang Hsi, 161 

Kwamouth, 107 

Kwang-si, 22 

Kwan-tung, 22, 41, 336 

Kwei-chou, 21 

Kwei Heng, 209 

Lama, Dalai, 19 

Lama Temple, 29 

Lamps, 113 

Land-tax, 28 

Lane, Rev. Wm., 162, 261 

Language, Chinese, 8, 25 

Laos, 102-107, 108-I17, 284 

Lao-tse, 15 

Lassa, 19 



Index 



377 



Laiighlin, Rev. J. II., 53, 6S, 261, 

343 
Laws, 336 

Lawsuits, 22Scli., 251,257, 312,349 
Learning, 40 

Lecky, W. E. H., 365, 366 
Legations, 212, 326, 327 ; Seige of, 

I93sq. 
Legge, Dr., 7 1 
" Letters of a Chinese Official," 

3lsq., 327, 354 

Li. 57 

Liao-tung, 179 

Liberty, Religious, 1 19 

Li Hung Chang, 41, 76, 338, 344 

Likin, 34S 

Lincoln, President, 360 

Liquor, 128 

Litters, 54 

Liu Kan Ji, 41 

Liu-kung, 181 

Liu Kun Yi, 195 

Living, Cost of, iiisq. 

Livingstone, David, io2 

Locomotives, 103, I04sq., 123, 133, 

136, 142 
Loess, 45 
London, 32 
London Missionary Society, 220, 

292, 296 
Looms, 103 
Looting, 324 
Louisiana, 22 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 

160, i6i 
Lowe, Henry P., 104 
Low, Hon. Frederick F., 155, 185, 

256, 257 
Lowell, James Russell, 120, 128, 

355 
Lowrie, Rev. Dr. John, 103 
Lowrie, Rev. J. Walter, 201, 203, 

208, 209, 352 
Lucas, Rev. Dr. J. J., 285 
Lu Han Railway, 133 
Lumber, 123 
Luther, Martin, 364 
Lyon, Dr. C. H., 53, 68, 343 

Macao, 134, 146, 147, 220 



Mackay, Clarence H., 109 
Mackenzie, John Kenneth, 323 
McKinley, President, 108, 330 
Magistrates, 27, 28, 47, 76, 77, 
95«l-. 139. 185, 193, 194, 209, 
210, 228 ch., 306, 331, :i^5, 334, 

342, 343. 344 
Mahdi, 119 
Malone, N. Y., 163 
Man, dignity of, 33, 34 
Manchuria, 8, 18, 19, 153, I79sq., 

307, 314, 348 
Manchus, 38, 314 
Mandarins, 29 
Manila, 42 

Manning, Hon. Daniel, 160 
Markham, Edwin, 358 
Marriage, 72 
Martin, Rev. Dr. W. A. P., 168, 

169, 217, 218, 353 
Martyrs, 195, 198, 202-211, 272- 

277. 341, 346, 361 
Mateer, Rev. Dr. Calvin, 104, 244 
Matting, 123 
Mecca, 105 
Mechanics, 40 

Medical missions, 223, 296, 347 
Mediterranean, 16 
Mei, General, 321 
Meiji Gakuin, 296 
Mencius, 15, 47 
Merchants, Chinese, 29 
Mercy, Goddess of, 74 
Methodists, 296, 299; missionary 

society of, 290, 292 
Mexico, 173; Churches in, 299 
Michie, Alexander, 230, 249 
Michigan, 21 
Millet, 46, 136 
Mills, Samuel J., 368 
Milton, John, 16, 370 
Miner, Lueila, 161 
Mines, 348 
Ministers, 236, 245sq. 
Ministry, 28S 
Minnesota, 22 
Mississippi River, 19; valley, 102, 

118 
Missionaries, 68, 97, 102, 116, 125, 

126, 128, 156, 167, 194, 20isq., 



378 



Index 



217 ch,, 223sq., 228ch., 236ch., 
249 ch., 341, 343, 347, 349, 359- 
368 
Mission work, 20isq., 2i9sq., 290sq., 

298, 345-347. 349. 350, 354, 370 

Missouri, 21 

Mobs, 43 

Mohammed, 15 

Mohammedans, 65, 66, 315; Mo- 
hammedanism, 258, 259 

Mongolia, 18 

Monks, Lama, 29 

Moore, Bishop, 320 

Mormons, 27 

Morrill, Miss Mary S., 201, 206 

Morrison, Rev. Robert, 220, 368 

Moscow, 132 

Mountains, 45, 47, 61, 65sq. 

Mourning, 342, 343 

Mukden, 8, 131, 132, 348 

Mulberry trees, 47 

Mules, 53, 55, 84 



Names, Chinese, 8 

Nanking, 132, 221 

Nanning-fu, 139 

Napier, Lord, 147-149 

Naples, 23 

Na Tung, 314 

Navy, 305, 306, 316, 333 

Neal, Dr. James B., 63 

Nebraska, 21 

Negroes, 43 

Nestorians in China, 218, 219 

Netherlands, 212 

Nevius, Rev. Dr. John C, 226, 227 

New England, 21-45 

New Guinea, 126 

News, North- China Daily, 76 

Newspapers, 334 

New York, 20, 22, 27 

Ngan-hwei, 22 

Nichols, Francis, 259 

Nieh-tai, 48 

Nile, 16 

Ningpo, 146, 150, 221 

North America, 106, 107 

North- China Herald, 27 

Norway, 212 



Obi River, 104 
Observatory, Astronomical, 325 
Oceanica, 19. 

Office, qualifications for, 40 
Official, letters of a Chinese, 327 
Officials, 27, 28, 139, 141, 185, 193, 
194, 209, 210, 228 ch., 306, 331, 

333. 334. 342, 343. 344 
Ohio, 21, 22 
Oil, 113, 114, 122 
" Open Door," the, 188, 348 
Opium, 47, 128, 149, 151, 155, 162, 

356, 357 
Opium War, 149, 150 
Oregon, 102, 123, 157 
Ornaments, 23 
Orthography, Chinese, 8 
Oxus, 16 

Pagodas, 22, 23 

Palestine, 107 

Panthay rebellion, 66 

Paoting-fu, 93, 133, 200-211,275, 

293. 346, 356 
Paper, 40 
Parents, 72sq. 

Parker, E. H., 29, 41, 152, 164, 170 
Parker, Rev. Dr., 332 
Parkhurst, Rev. Dr. Charles H., 

128 
Parsons, Wm. Barclay, 134 
Partition, of Africa, 175 ; of Asia, 

I74sq. ; of China, 307sq., 314, 

354 
Passengers, railway, 140 
Pastors, Chinese, 280 ch. 
Patent office, 348 
Patriotism, 35 
Pawnshops, 63 
Pearl River, see West River 
Peculiarities of Chinese, 25 sq. 
Peking, 8, 105, 133, I97sq., 290sq. 
Peking-Hankow R. R., 200, 201 
Peking, seige of, 345, 346 
Penang, 42 
Pennsylvania, 22 

Pentecost, Rev. Dr. George F., 346 
People, of Asia, in ; of China, 25sq. 

ch., 47, 97, 98, 228sq., 314, 352, 

353 



Index 



379 



Peril, yellow, 305 ch., 354 
Perry, Commodore, 10 1 
Persecution of Chrisiians, 202sq., 

272-279 
Persia, 16, 108, 114, 313 
Persian Gulf, 16 
Peru, 172 

Pescadores Islands, 146 
Philadelphia, 32, 43, 157 
Philippine Islands, 107, 146 
Photography, 103 
Pien-kiao, 30, 96 
Pitkin, Rev. Horace T., 201, 205, 

206 
Pittsburg, 103 
Plows, 129, 263 
Politics, foreign, Part III 
Poor, the, 30 
Pope, 37 

Poppy, 47 

Population of China, 18, 22, 36, 

315 
Port Arthur, 131, 179, 180 
Portland, Or., 122 
Ports, China's, 124, 125 
Portugal, 171, 173, 175, 212; 

Portuguese in China, 145-147 
Post-office, 103, 334 
Potter, Bishop, 307 
Pottery, 39 
Powers, European, 330, 359, 363, 

366 
Prefects, 47, 81 
Prejudices, 317, 351 
Presbyterians, Board of, 239, 286, 

290, 292, 293, 295, 296, 298, 300; 

Church, 2S8, 297, 299; missions, 

48, 59, 60, 63, 81, 201, 198, 337, 

346, 352 
Press, mission, 28, 103, 223, 296, 

337 ; periodical, 334, 339 
Princeton Theological Seminary, 7 
Printing, 39 
Protestants in China, 20isq., 22osq., 

222, 223, 230sq., 236 ch., 253, 

257, 290sq., 366sq. 
Provinces, 19, 22, 23, 333, 334 
Prussia, 17 1 
Public service, 28 
Pulu Condore, 152 



Punishments, 29, 74, 185 

Race prejudice, 158; superiority, 33 

Railways, 52, I04sq., 1 1 isq., I30ch., 
196, 263 

Recantation of Christians, 277, 278 

Reform Party, 189-191, 240 

Reforms, 335-338, 345 

Religions of Asia, 119; of China, 
31, 5i,65sq. ch., 315 

Resources of China, 18, 315 

Revolutions, American, 359 ; Chi- 
nese, 35, 333, 334, 351; eco- 
nomic, III ch., 132, i36sq.,28och. 

Ricci, Matteo, 219 

Rice, 46, III 

Richthoven, Baron von, 18, 44 

Rites, 27 

Roads, Chinese, 25, 39, 45, 55, 116, 

138 

Rock Springs massacre, 159, 187 

Roman Catholics, 58, 69, 176, 183, 
193, 195, 199, 200, 219, 230, 250- 
257, 260, 350 

Roman Empire, 16 

Romanization Chinese language, 9 

Romans, 351 ; Empire of, 361 

Roosevelt, President, 109 

Ruskin, John, 34 

Russia, 41, 42, loi, 117, 131, 132, 
I53sq., 169, 171, 172, 173, 174, 
179, ^83, 188, 189, 212, 236, 
307. 308. 309. 3", 312, 313, 
317. 334, 365; soldiers of, 325 

Russia-Japan War, 10 1, 348, 349 

Russo-Chinese Bank, 133 

Sacrifices, 78 
Saigon, 42, 152 
Salaries, 28 

Salisbury, Lord, 262, 266 
Sampans, 48 
San Francisco, 157, 159 
Sayre, James W., 106 
Scenery, 22, 31, So 
Scepticism, 128 
Scholars, 40 
Scholarship, 40, 305 
Schools, 117, 190, 191, 223. 260, 
265, 295, 335, 337, 339, 347, 353 



38o 



Index 



Scidmore, Eliza, 25 

Science, British Association for 

Advancement of, 104 
Scotland, 16; people of, 16 
Sectarianism, 295 
Sen Yat Sen, 311 
Self-support, 272, 284sq. 
Seoul, 105, 107, 132 
Seward, Hon. George F., 263 
Sewing machines, 1 14 
Shakespeare, Wm., 34 
Shanghai, 42, 130, 132, 150, 221 
Shan-hai Kwan, 131 
Shan-si, 21, 132, 196, 341 
Shantung Province, 20, 21, 45sq, 

ch., 52sq. ch., 97, 132, I76sq., 

196, 296, 307, 336, 339, 341, 

342 
Shantung Protestant University, 

296, 353 
Sheffield, Rev. Dr. D. Z., 322 
Shendza, 53, 55sq,, 84 
Shen-si, 18, 21, 132, 133, 195, 

219 
Sherman, Hon. John, 237 
Shimonoseki, 179 
Shops, 23 
Shunte-fu, 133 
Siam, 102, 105, 107, 113, 114, 116, 

117, 119,313 
Siberia, 108 
Siberian Railway, 105, 106, 1 31, 

153. 179 
Sick, the, 30 
Siege of Peking, 193-200, 345, 

346 
Silk, 23, 39, 47, 123 
Silver currency, 1 1 1 
Simcox, Rev. F. E., 20isq., 211 
Si-ngan-fu, 133 
Singapore, 42 
Si-sui, 80 
Smith, Rev. Dr. Arthur H., 38, 

229, 267, 321, 338 
Smith, Rev. Dr. George Adam, 

127 
Society, Chinese, 40, 41 
Soldiers, American, 306 ; Chinese, 

40, 76, 9isq., 222, 30559., 316, 

339> 345 ; European, 306 ; for- 



eign, 127, 186, 198, 208, 273, 

320 ch., 328, 329 
Soudan, 119 
Soil, 45 

South America, 106 
Soochow, 132 

Spain, 16, 146, 171, 172, 175, 212 
Spirit Road, 70 
Spirits, 30sq., 74sq. 
Stage coach, 103 
Stanley, Henry M., 102, 105 
Stanley Falls, 104 
Statistics, U. S. Bureau of, 109 
Staunton, Sir George, 147 
Steam, 103, no 
Steamers, 103, 104, iiisq., 130 
Stewart, Rev. Dr. James, 126, 175 
Stewart, Senator, 41 
Storrs, Rev. Dr. R. S., 23 
St. Petersburg, 105 
Strong, Rev. Dr. Josiah, no 
Su, Prince, 314 
Suffering, 29, 30 
Suicide, 26 

Summer Palace, 197, 198, 324, 325 
Superstition, 30, 51, 74sq., 137, 138 
Swatow, 20 
Sweden, 171, 212 
Syria, 117, 118, 361 
Sze-chuen, 22, 132 

Tacoma, 159 

Tael, III 

Tai-an-fu, 65 

Tai-ping Rebellion, 28, 221, 222 

Tai-shan, 65sq. 

Tai-yuen-fu, 133 

Taku, 130, 196, 212 

Ta-hen-wan, 180 

Tamerlane, 318 

Tang Hsiao-chuan, 340 

Taoism, 15, 74sq. 

Tao-tai, 48 

Taylor, Dr. George Y., 20l-2l4sq. 

Taylor, Rev. J. Hudson, 240 

Taxes, 28, 333, 348, 349 

Tea, 39, 86, 123; shops, 23 

Telegraphs, I07sq. 

Telephones, 103, 107, 114 

Temple, Great Confucian, 7 1 



Index 



381 



Temple of Heaven, 197, 198 

Temples, 39, 65sq. cli., 325 

Tcng-ticn-fu, 348 

Tennessee, 21 

Thoburn, Bishop, 129 

Threshing, 46 

Tibet, 18 

Tieh Liang, 314 

Tientsin, 20, 131, I32, 154, 197, 

221, 313, 325, 344, 361 
Tiles, 113 
Ting Jung, 209 
Tobacco factories, 23 
Toleration clauses, i67sq. 
Tong-king, 135, 307 
Tong-ku, 131, 196, 344 
Torture, 185 
Tourane, 152 
Trade, 40, lOQsq., I lysq., 121 ch., 

I26sq., 142, 147, 159 
Trademarks, 348 
Traders, 40, 42, 102, I24sq., 145, 

156 

Travelling in China, 84,91, loi ch. 

Treaties, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 
155, 156, 166, i67sq. ; list of, 
I7isq., 179, 212, 221, 237, 238, 

247. 34^, 349 
Trees, 45 

Tribune, New York, 41 
Trolley cars, 107 
Tsing-tau, 123, 132, 139, 176-179, 

331 
Tsungli Yamen, 155, 212, 254 
Tuan Fang, 195 
Tung-chou, 49sq., 177, 321, 322, 

340 
Turkestan, Chinese, 18 
Turkey, 175 
Type, 39 

Uganda, 104 

United States, 17, 19, 21, 106, 117, 
118, 154 ch., 171, 172, 173, 175, 
182, 188, 207, 208, 211, 212, 234, 

235. 307. 308, 329-331. 348- 
350,362; trade of, I22sq., I54sq., 
J59 

Universities, 190, 335, 353 

Ussuri, 153 



Vanhals, 315 
Van Schoick, Dr., 58 
Verne, Jules, 106 
Vices, 27sq., I24sq., 142 
Victoria Falls, 104 
Victoria, Queen, 108 
Villages, 20, 21 
Villagers, allied, 93 
Virginia, 21 
Vladivostok, 13 1, 179 

Wade, Hon. Francis, 239, 240, 

256 
W^ade, Hon. Thomas F., 170 
Wai-wu Pu, 213, 314 
Walls, 210 
Wang, Captain, 340 
War with Japan, 179, 180, 189 
Ward, Frederick T., 222 
Watchman, 90 
Wei-hai Wei, 152, 181 
Wei-hsien, 59sq., 113, 123, 132, 

296, 345 
Weng Chan Kwei, 209 
Wen Hsiang, 170, 185, 239, 257 
Wen River, 67 

West River, 22, 23, 135, 152, 307 
West Virginia, 21 
Wheat, 46, III, 136 
Wheelbarrows, 25, 53, 54 
Wherry, Rev. Dr. John, 39 
Whiskey, 46, 86 
Whitman, Marcus, 102 
Widows, 19 
Wiju, 105, 132 
William IV, 108 
Williams, Dr. S. Wells, 39, 75, 150, 

167, 16S 
Williamstown, IVIass., 368 
Wilson, Gen. James H., 266 
Winnowing, 46 
Winter palace, 197, 198 
Wireless telegraphy, 109 
Wisconsin, 21 
Women, 26, 27, 46, 62 
Women missionaries, 262 
Wong Kai Kah, 159 
Wool, 123 
Working-man, 1 18 
Worship, ancestral, 72sq., 340 



382 



Index 



Wright, Hon. Carroll D., 282 
Wu-sung, 122, 130, 182 
Wu Ting-fang, 43, 73, 130, 266, 
329, 330 

Xavier, Francis, 102, 219 

Yale University, 43 
Yalu River, 105, 348 
Yamen, 95, 96 

Yang-tze River, 133, 135, 307 
Yellow peril, 305 ch., 354 
Yellow River, 63, 76, 191 
Yen, 76 
Yen-chou-fu, 69 



Yenisei River, 104 

Yo-chou, 182 

Yuan Shih Kai, gisq., 97, 195, 196, 

261, 267, 307, 314, 338-345, 

365 
Yueh-Kou, 82, 83 
Yuen Yen Tai, 340 
Yu Hsien, 341 
Yung-loh, Emperor, 40 
Yun-nan, 21, 66, 135, 152 

Zagros Mountains, 16 
Zoroaster, 15 
Zululand, 32 








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